The Meat You Haven't Met

g l a - MOO M O OO - r o u s Dec.

HEFTY HEIFERS

2014

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REBECCA SOJA The Meat You Haven’t Met Thesis Prep Fall 2014 Syracuse University School of Architecture advisors: Sekou Cooke Terrance Goode Sinead MacNamara

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te to improving your ecological hoofprint.” “committed

LE T TER to the E D I TO R

THE MEAT YOU HAVEN’T MET Beef comes from cattle. Yet the meat we buy rarely reminds us of the animal that lived only days before its meat was butchered and packaged into steaks or patties we usually associate with the beef we eat. This is because we don’t witness or experience many of the hidden processes of raising, producing, slaughtering, and processing beef. Generally we know cows need to be killed, but we are unconscious of an intruding architecture and infrastructure that destroys natural landscapes, symbiotic relationships, and local communities in order to support such a sizeable industry. Additionally, we are not always willing to accept the truth.

Agribusinesses refuse to acknowledge the serious ramifications of their decisions that may not only contribute to the devastation of vital communities and ecologies, but also paradoxically, their own demise. Unsustainable and detrimental procedures and attitudes that permeate our daily lives are upheld and persist. As a result, animals certainly suffer, but so do humans and the environment due to immediate causes and more distant, drawn-out externalities.

Very few of the current approaches to resolve problems challenge reoccuring themes. Instead of changing the food system or the proliferation of an excessive American/western diet at a foundational level, proposed remedies treat problems like setbacks instead of crises. Modernist and productivist attitudes devoid of emotion and geared towards economy, treat animals like mechanical components or commodity outputs at the end of highly industrialized processes. They conform and react to conditions of confinement or economies of scale for profit through manipulation and technology to achieve greater control over fickle nature.

Ironically, this often creates more unforeseen problems to confront.

We consume food, but in reality, we have no idea where it comes from and consequently fail to grasp the lack of sustainability behind it all. We trust labels, corporations, media, and the internet to inform us of our consumption

choices. An increasingly distanced relationship with food is heightened by misleading, deceptive words and imagery in advertisements and packaging. This distorts perceptions and capitalizes on disclosure and lack of public knowledge.

Built environments and geographies also contribute to this distancing.

Currently, architects really only operate at the consumption end of a food chain, designing restaurants, grocery stores, or other programs where meat has already been processed and packaged. Agendas involve drawing in more customers by offering pleasurable experiences or clean, lovely settings that shape brand/company reputation. However, the more technical and gruesome phases of production are usually designed by engineers specifically for efficiency and economy. Architects are only engaging in a small conversation that is part of a much larger discussion when there is tremendous potential for architecture to intervene and spark new ideas for alternative modes of food production and consumption. By supporting design for commercialized ventures and not participating in other

phases, architects unintentionally facilitate the conventional food system.

This project asserts that architecture has the agency to expose the flaws and contradictions within the conventional, industrialized food system. However, the approach may not be what one would expect. Instead of trying to implement more sustainable practices or buildings, there is a very sarcastic and subversive tone guiding the work.

The objective is to appear to continue masking or greenwashing these deplorable operations, but in fact these methods will create transparency through concealment by intervening within existing spaces.

Through a lens of contradiction, the project aims to evaluate how architecture currently contributes to a lack of transparency in beef production and the commodification of meat in order to propose how it may more effectively serve to increase transparency and create a foundation for food activism that will lead to sustainable alternative approaches.

Syracuse School of Architecture

REBECCA SOJA

Thesis Pr ep Net Weigh t

2.90lbs

Unit Pri ce

Dec. 10 , 2014

$4.49/lb

Total Pri ce

THE MEAT YOU HAVEN'T MET

$13.02

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Total Pri ce

$13.02

glaMOOrous 01

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Thus far, the project has undergone two progressive phases with the goal of creating a narrative that subversively exposes and critiques the conventional food system and challenges of recently proposed alternatives which may ultimately lead to the implementation of new alternatives.

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REBECCA SOJA THE MEAT YOU HAVEN’T MET Thesis Prep Fall 2014 Advising Committee: Sekou Cooke, Terrance Goode, Sinead MacNamara

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

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The contention of this thesis is that architecture designed for consumption currently contributes to distancing consumers from a relationship with food (specifically looking at beef) by emphasizing commercial attitudes and commodities and failing to participate in earlier production and processing phases.

If architecture and spatial or visual relationships have the ability to entice through masking, then there must be potential for design throughout the food chain- from farm to fork- with the agency to do the opposite: contribute to a more transparent food system and perhaps even more sustainable alternatives. With increasing demand for a transparent food system by concerned consumers, architecture can respond to that demand in some capacity.

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3

Having criticized and gained understanding of the ability for built environments to relay false perceptions as a means to subversively expose disputed beef production trends, the final phase takes a more optimistic approach. If design can mask, conceal, and shape opinions all the while being more transparent, there must be potential for actual transparency and sustainable alternatives. The proposals in this phase would go beyond education and raised awareness which is confronted in an unexpected way in Phase 2. It would recommend designs for sustainable alternatives through applying insight gained from the previous work. The programs may continue to be the structures or infrastructures within the beef food chain, or it may be a proposal for a program that rethinks engagement at the consumption end of the spectrum that veers away from commercialization and commodification, to use beef as a design tool, rather than a marketed design incentive.

1

The first task to tackle was researching the contradictions within industrialized beef production; this has resulted in the compilation of glaMoorous magazine.

Instead of presenting information in a more straight-forward book layout, the magazine already begins to critique the exploitive nature of conventional food system tactics.

At first glance, illustrations, advertisements, and bolded text appear to be positive, encouraging the reader to eat meat without worry or concern; however, upon further inspection, the body of the text reveals the hidden realities of cheap meat. Sarcastically and subversively undermining the system while seemingly supporting its continuation, serves as a metaphor of how industrial beef’s unsustainable practices for profit are paradoxically symptoms of the industry’s demise. This also sets a tone of sarcastic underpinnings driving the following phases of the project.

2

Research begins to look more closely at architectural elements within each of seven determined beef food chain phases. Employing a strategy of transparency through conealment, which amplifies current industry marketing strategies to cover up flaws, a sarcastic campaign of a transparency tour for the fictional corporation Beefville, U.S.A. is devised. The role of architectural elements have been identified in each phase and areas for intervention have been suggested.

This information is presented through a map of the transparency tour, and brochures that have been started further advertising each phase. This tour has the intention of gaining consumer loyalty and support for industrial beef by implying consumers will be more willing to buy beef products if they know more about how and where they are made. Perceived obstacles preventing transparency would deceptively be removed. As the architect of this experience, the objective is to take on the task of creating a better corporate image to fulfill the primary requests of the corporation. However, this will be done with sarcastic interventions that through concealment, only amplify the problems because the experience is so outrageous no one would ever believe it. Ultimately, this design phase critiques existing conditions by further exposing through designed scenarios and environments and methods in which architecture and geographies, when combined with politics and culture, enable the conventional food system.

promotional ad campaign by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board | “Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.”

02 glaMOOrous

CONTENTS

Beauty & Fashion Aromatics 04 Gastronomic attract attention with

Business & Economy

34 Eat Your T-bones

so long veggies, beef is taking over

powerfully pungent perfumes

Health & Nutrition

36 Bringing Home the Beef behind the muscles of meat packing

Milk?

08 Got milk production at an all

Travel & Leisure

time high

12

Hefty Heifers may the scales be ever in your favor

40 Bon Voyage!

beef cattle have the privilege to traverse the globe

44

Art & Culture

18

Farmland World announcing the opening of a new kind of amusement

22 Illuminating Landscapes

76

Management 24 Waste too much shit to handle?

to worry

tour

Spot the Feedlots Factory Farm Word Search

Extra Reading

never.

Living 28 Care-free at the feedlot there is no need

BEEFVILLE transparency

Puzzles & Games

photographic exhibition of stunning aerial shots

Home & Lifestyle

travel guide

78

Eating to be Eaten sneak peek: the diary of angus beef

Science & Technology 80 Food for Thought

30 Generation Genome

resources to get you thinking

calves growing up with superior DNA glaMOOrous 03

B E AU T Y & FA S HION

GASTRONOMIC AROMATICS

attract attention with powerfully pungent perfumes

04 glaMOOrous

The stentch can be sensed in every direction for miles and airborne toxins can travel even further up to 300 miles away.

Chances are you will SMELL a CAFO before you ever see one.

Despite a drive for perpetual technological and social advancement, the overall atmosphere and air quality of CAFOs and slaughterhouses is perhaps one thing that hasn’t drastically changed as notably demonstrated in the description of the characters’ first exposure on the drive to the stockyards in Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle: “A full hour before the party reached the city they had begun to note the perplexing changes in the atmosphere. It grew darker all the time, and upon the earth the grass seemed to grow less green…the landscape hideous and bare. And along with the thickening smoke they began to notice another circumstance, a strange, pungent odor. They were not sure that it was unpleasant, this odor; some might have called it sickening, but their taste in odors was not developed, and they were only sure that it was curious….It was now no longer something far-off and faint, that you caught a in whiffs; you could literally taste it, as well as smell it-

you could take hold of it, almost, and examine it at your leisure. … It was an elemental odor, raw and crude; it was rich, almost rancid, sensual, and strong….The new emigrants were still tasting it, lost in wonder, when suddenly the car came to a halt, and the door was flung open, and a voice shouted- “Stockyards!””

Invisible AIR. Air pollution or contamination (in conjunction with greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming) is one of the most pressing issues caused by an industrialized and concentrated beef industry from one end of the food chain to the other. Although some gases give off rotten odors, air is otherwise something that goes unnoticed and is taken for granted. It is only when physical landscapes, felt climates, or personal health are noticeably altered that the impacts of invisible air become visible.

There are several contributing sources: 1. Cattle Belching and Flatulence: Methane is produced by microbes and released through the animals’ noses and tailpipes during the enteric fermentation of ruminant digestion.

2. Excessive Amounts of Manure: Waste excreted by cattle on confined

feedlots can not be cycled back through the system as fertilizer because it is too distant from feed production or exceeds needs. Instead manure is stored as liquid, solid, or slurry forms in lagoons, tanks, or pits. Decomposing manure emits 160 different gases with hydrogen sulfide being the most lethal and the most prevalent gases being ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane, and carbon monoxide.

3. Transportation: Tractor trailers, trucks, trains, and sea vessels carry feed and other inputs to factory farms, live animals to feedlots and slaughterhouses, and meat to distribution centers and/or retailers (stores and restaurants). Additionally, international imports or exports occur at a global scale.

4. Emissions Caused By Deforestation, Overgrazing, Compaction, & Erosion of Soil: These practices increase nitrous oxide emissions due to pressures on the land from livestock for feed production (esp. corn and soybeans) and grazing.

Global livestock production is the single largest user of land on the planet; this transformation of the land removes valuable carbon sinks that would help to offset emissions.

(continue to pg. 07)

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06 glaMOOrous

5. Widespread Overuse of Synthetic Fertilizers: For centuries, synthetic fertilizers have been used to grow crops, which in the beef industry means growing crops for animal feeds. Half of all energy used in intensive animal production is used during the production of feed from the manufacturing of fertilizers to the planting, harvesting, processing, and transportation of that feed.

identity, reduced social gatherings and enjoyment of outdoor spaces, or decreased property values. Often affected communities are low income and already have poor housing, education, infrastructure, and healthcare.

Animal agriculture is responsible for approximately 18% of total greenhouse gas emissions, but that number is on the rise. These gases contribute to global climate change. Although carbon dioxide is often blamed, other gases are much more harmful; methane has a Global Warming Potential (GWP) 23 times that of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide has a GWP 300 times greater.

Ongoing research and other technologies attempt to address and monitor air quality. For example, experiments are conducted to reduce cattle methane production such as adding garlic to their diet to attack methane-producing microbes, breeding cows that live longer with better digestive systems, or giving cows pills that trap gas in the rumen and convert it to glucose. Methane digesters/ manure lagoons also try to capture some of the gases for use to generate heat and electricity. However none of these approaches fundamentally change the system or western diet foodways. They only react so that industrial production methods can continue even though the most sustainable solution would be to shift away from the current system entirely.

Global Warming has countless negative consequences with environmental, political, social, economic, and technological ramifications that are interconnected within the complex systems we have created to sustain our daily lives. For example, for the first time ever, drought in Australia has been scientifically linked to climate change.

This impacts agriculture, which then impacts the meat industry that relies either on corn, soy, and other crops for animal feeds or the presence of healthy grasses in pastures for grazing. Beyond production, other sectors also become affected by issues like rising prices, food access and availability, or loss of jobs. This is a globalized problem that industrial economies of scale within beef production are both directly and indirectly contributing to and suffering from.

On another level, there are major impacts to human health, especially workers and residents of surrounding neighborhoods.

Dangers to human health caused by contaminated air can include: respiratory problems (asthma, chronic bronchitis, acute respiratory distress syndrome), headaches, excessive coughing, and diarrhea or digestive disturbances.

Mental health issues, like psychological disorders of anxiety or depression are also reportedly higher in these groups.

Working towards making the world a GREENER place.

Overall there is poor regulation and inspections within the beef industry that need to be changed and enforced. Federal policies give CAFOs billions of taxpayer dollars to address pollution problems created by confining so many animals in small areas. If industrial beef operations actually had to pay fines or finance cleanup with their own money they wouldn’t be so successful. Factory farms are industrial facilities and should be treated as such with permits, inspections, and responsibility for monitoring, cleaning up, and disposing their waste products.

Tackling air quality is a challenge because of its inherently silent existence. More transparency would inform the public of where CAFOs or related risks are and raise local government and citizen participation. At the least, the common person has the power of consumer choice.

Furthermore, noxious and foul odors have social impacts on communal or personal glaMOOrous 07

H E ALTH & N UT RIT ION

GOT MILK?

milk production at an all time high

08 glaMOOrous

F or about two centuries, trying to get more milk out of a cow has been the goal.

When we obtain milk from a cow, we are tricking her into thinking she is feeding a calf. That’s nothing new in animal husbandry, but what is new is the use of machines and scientific technologies to maximize milk production on factory farms. Farmers didn’t have the tools to realize their cows’ full milking potential until well into the 20th century. In fact, these tools led to national milk surpluses. However no one could have predicted the ramifications to come less than a century later. At the time, the application of Mendelian genetics or the chemical analysis of milk seemed to offer a promising future with greater access to milk.

Udderly Speechless.

Female cows reach sexual maturity at 15 months and are ready for milking by 24 months when they give birth to their first calf. To keep the milk flowing, dairy cows must be impregnated once during the course of the year or a 365-day lactation period. Over half a century ago, farmers would have kept most milking cows for a dozen years after their first lactation, but today most Holstein dairy cows pump out milk for only 2-4 years before they are culled for cheap hamburger meat.

The cows’ services simply aren’t needed anymore as new cows are brought in even though they may be healthy and capable of producing milk for another decade.

MORE milk, LESS cows.

Fewer cows are producing more milk than ever. In 1950, there were 21 million milk cows in America producing a total 116 billion pounds of milk; in 2000, 9,000 milk cows produced 167 billion pounds of milk, a number which has steadily been rising to now 190 billion pounds per year. In short, the average yield per cow is about 2.5 times greater than it was 60 years ago. Between 1950-2000, the number of U.S. farms with dairy cows also dwindled from an astounding 3.65 million to a mere 105,000, all while the average number of cows per farm increased 15fold.

MILK Mustache

Setting the Record Book Straight: two dairy cows raise the standard for milk production GREATEST MILK YIELD BY A COW

GREATEST MILK YIELD BY A COW

365 DAY LACTATION

LIFETIME

1326-ET

SMURF

72,170 pounds of milk

478,163 pounds of milk

(with 2,787 pounds fat + 2,142 pounds protein)

(216,891 kg | 217,000 litres - 11 lactations)

previous record:

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS

MURANDA OSCAR LUCINDA-ET VG-86

previous record-holder Japan

67,914 pounds of milk U.S. Holstein average (2008):

23,022 pounds of milk (with840 pounds fat + 709 pounds protein)

Dairy Cow Lifetime average (2012):

77,160 pounds of milk

when: February 2010

when: February, 2012

age: calving at 4 years 5 months owner: Thomas Kestell

age: 15 years owner: Gilles Patenaude

Ever-Green-View Holsteins

La Ferme Gillete Inc. Dairy Farm

location: Waldo, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

location: Emburn, Ontario, CANADA

“This record wasn’t hard on her- she looks great and feels great. She just wasn’t stressed out at all, just like the rest of her family.”

“Smurf has earned the privilege of a private box stall; she is milked there at 4 a.m., at noon and at 8 p.m. and fed the best possible ration.”

(continue to pg. 11)

glaMOOrous 09

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Clearly the genetic manipulation has been working. However, unlike beef, where putting ‘No Growth Hormones’ on a label can be an opportunity to raise prices for consumers who are willing to pay more for hormone-free meat, this is not the case for milk which is subsidized by the government. Thus, megadairies are at a huge advantage compared to smaller farm operations which supports consolidation and concentration within the industry.

Unfortunately, these economies of scale also pollute air, contaminate water and soil, and jeopardize public health like any other CAFO.

Milking cows is repetitive, strenuous work for humans. With so many cows to manage (factory farms in California or Colorado can milk 15,000-18,000 cows) in industrial operations, this work is executed by computer-programmed electric milk machines that are hooked up to cows every 8-12 hours. The dairy industry consequently depends on these machines and the energy consumption that goes along with them.

Keep the MILK f owing: it’s GOOD for us.

Additionally, cows are treated like milk machines. The well-being of the cows and their natural behaviors are practically ignored to meet demands and gain profits.

Grazing for larger herd sizes requires too much expensive land, so diets of grain-feed have become the norm. These feeds are enhanced with additives and antibiotics to prevent cows from getting sick by eating food their ruminant digestive systems weren’t designed to handle. Still, many cows still suffer from acidosis and laminitis. The cows get little to no exercise and eat regulated feeds rather than grass due to the efficiency of confinement. Living in such crowded, manufactured environments is not pleasant. Often cows walk on hard ground

surfaces and rubber mats instead of soft soils. Often they also stand in their own wastes. They rarely go outside and have limited access to open-air areas.

Maximized milk production is also very stressful. Many cows have calcium deficiencies, lameness, and compromised immune systems leading to contraction of diseases like mastitis (inflammation of the udder). It would be a miracle if cows in such conditions even survived past their up-to-6-year pre-determined expiration dates.

Sadly, with milk costing more to produce than it is sold for, farmers have to reduce production costs and optimize yields just to stay afloat or risk losing everything.

It is also cheaper to distribute milk from Californian factory farms across the country for retail, than it is for local farmers to sell to consumers, making it nearly impossible for small-scale operations to compete. They have little choice but to adopt the techniques that cause more harm than good.

The alternative- rotational grazing on pastures with small herds that are genetically diverse, no use of antibiotics, hormones, or medicines seems like a fantasy now that the dream of optimal milk production has been realized.

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2015

These impressive statistics are the result of scientific applications and industry concentration. First, is the use of selective breeding for cow types that could convert more of what they ate into milk than towards maintaining their body weight. These cows require greater calorie intake, leading to the use of ‘high energy’ feeds made with subsidized corn and soy ingredients that also stimulated milk production. Later, conventional megadairies used genetically engineered artificial growth hormone rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) produced by Monsanto Company to boost milk output. The hormone was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1993.

the “ i t ’s g o i n g t o b e MILK PRODUCTION d o w n t o t h e 1 l a s t d r o p” WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2 st

nd

t h e d a i r y i n d u s t r y ’s m o s t p r e s t i g i o u s c o m p e t i t i o n

3

rd

think you have the udders to compete?

BUY O R R E G I S T R AT I O N I N F O. a t S P E C TATO R w w w. M P W C 2 0 1 5 . c o m TICKETS glaMOOrous 11

12 glaMOOrous

GRASS RASS S

GRAIN GR R RAI

GUZZLERS G GU ER RS R S HEFTY HEIFERS

GRAZERS GR G RA RS R S

H E ALTH & N UT RIT ION

may the scales be ever in your favor

F or nearly a century, industrial animal farmers have been supplementing feed

rations with additives to promote rapid growth. This began with vitamins and nutrients that would allow producers to keep animals inside year-round. Later, with increased confinement leading to mortalities and disease outbreaks, technological developments of antibiotics were added to water and feed. Today some shocking additives may include: hydrolyzed poultry feathers, by-products of slaughtered animals, ground up wild fish, interspecies waste, antibiotic drugs, growth hormones, minerals and metals, and synthetic roughage replacements.

These ‘recipe tweaks’ have been working.

75 years ago it would take 4-5 years for a cow to reach slaughter weight, now it only takes only 14-18 months. Over the last 50 years, the average market weight of a cow has increased about 300 pounds from 1,004 pounds in 1960 to well over 1300 pounds in 2010. With retail weight coming to about 40% of market/total weight, that’s an increase of over 100 pounds of meat per cow reaching grocery shelves. However, not all of these are added solely for the sake of optimized and accelerated weight gain. Other factors have played critical roles in determining what ingredients end up in cattle feeds.

Ultimately, feeds are formulated to speed up growth to reach market weight and to supply essential nutrients while minimizing cost to producers.

Weight GAIN is the ultimate GOAL. Federal subsidies on corn and soy especially encouraged the use of grain feeds because those inputs could be purchased below the cost of production for greater beef production and profits.

Without these subsidies, a 1/4 pound McDonald’s hamburger could never cost $1. Feeding animals grain can reduce operating costs by 5-15%, which translates into billions of dollars and is perhaps more important to producers than gains of efficiency or sustainability. Grain feeds also happen to help animals gain weight faster. 47% of soy and 60% of corn produced in US is consumed by livestock.

There has been a massive shift from food to feed. For example, in 2008, over 200 million acres were dedicated to growing

feeder corn, soybeans, and alfalfa to feed animals. In comparison, the amount of land used to grow the top 10 types of U.S. produce is only about 1 million acres.

All of this land used for producing grain feeds and pasturelands increases rates of soil erosion until the land won’t be fertile enough to support either system.

Agriculture also demands a lot of water resources. 60% of the world’s fresh water goes to agriculture with 33% of that going towards growing animal feed crops. Grain-fed beef production uses a disproportionate amount of water for the amount of food it produces. For every kilogram of meat produced, 100,000 liters of water are used. In comparison, soybeans use 98% less water at 2,000 liters/kg, and potatoes only 500 liters/ kg. Water use is important to food access and security because currently over half of the states in the U.S. experience moderate to severe drought. The system depends on quantities of water that will not be available in the future following these trends.

the GAINS of GRAINS ( + other additives)

MARCH

2015 JUNE

2016 1

2

3

4

5

7

8

9

10

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12

14

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17

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21 27 28 20 22 23 24 25 only 14-16 months

26

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(about 6-8months spent in feedlot) 27

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HIGHER FINISHED WEIGHT up to 1,500 pounds ~40% of total weight becomes beef lbs

COW SCALE

avg. weight = 1,300 lbs

MARBLING USDA grades

faster weight gain starts with a BALANCED grain DIET. Overall, cattle use more food supply than they provide and more resources than other food system sectors. In the U.S. 157 million tons of cereals, legumes, and vegetative proteins are fed to livestock to produce just 28million tons of animal protein in the form of meat for human consumption. The beef energy input to protein output ratio is staggering at 54:1, contributing much more than chickens or pigs to this inefficiently. If the grains fed to livestock in the U.S. were consumed directly by people, it could feed 800 million, or if exported, could boost U.S. trade balance by $80 billion per year.

Tremendous amounts of resources and energy could be saved if more crops went directly towards human consumption, and if humans consumed less meat. An acre of cereal crops can produce 5 times the protein compared to an acre used for meat production. Meat consumption trends also impact society at a global level.

LESS TIME

weight gain per day = 2.5-4 lbs

(prime, choice, or select)

BETTER TASTE the majority of people prefer greain-fed beef

LOWER PRICE BRAND

more affordable information

avg. price (retail choice beef ) = $5.29

ABUNDANCE

94 million (U.S. Annual Cattle Production Total)

(continue to pg. 14)

glaMOOrous 13

Many countries that are poor often have grain surpluses but they have to export them for feed production so the affluent in other countries can consume meat.

Paradoxically, these farmers support a process that in no way sustains them.

Simply put, raising cattle in general depletes tremendous amounts of resources, and raising cattle on grain feeds use even more. Eventually there will come a point when these resources run out.

One of the reasons why beef production is so inefficient is that cattle eat excessive amounts of foods that their digestive systems biologically can’t handle. Cattle are ruminants, with a four-compartment stomach designed to break down roughage. As a cow chews, digestive enzymes in its saliva get mixed into the food before it is swallowed. Then the food passes down the esophagus into the reticulum and rumen where it is fermented and broken down by microbes. Some of the larger food particles are regurgitated, chewed again and re-swallowed; this is “chewing the cud.” Otherwise, digested matter flows into the omasum which further reduces particle size through water absorption.

Next, digesta moves to abomasum, or true stomach, which secretes digestive enzymes that break the food down into protein, vitamins, carbohydrates, fats, and amino acids that are later absorbed in the small intestine. Indigestible matter passes to the large intestine where fecal matter is formed and expelled through the anus.

There’s NOTHING 4 stomachs can’t handle.

The entire process evolved through symbiotic relationships between the grass, cows, and bacteria. In fact, when calves are born on cow-calf operations, their rumens are not developed so they have to eat a fibrous diet of grass, milk, and water. When cattle are introduced to a high energy grain diet on feedlots, it has to be done slowly because the roles of the bacteria are so specific and need to be re-established so the cow can continue to eat without the microbes perishing.

Therefore, it shouldn’t be a surprise that grain diets are unnatural, leading to numerous health problems.

A grain-fed rumen is acidic while grass14 glaMOOrous

fed rumens are neutral. A common side effect is bloat, when copious amounts of gas given off by bacteria during rumination get trapped, inflating the rumen and pressing against the lungs.

Another result of abnormal rumen pH is acidosis; cows go off their feed, pant and salivate, paw at their bellies, and eat dirt.

Other side effects can include diarrhea, ulcers, abscessed livers, and weakened immune systems. In response, antibiotics are added to feeds to prevent sickness and casualties. It is estimated that 70% of all antibiotics in the U.S. are given to livestock. After all, sick or deceased cattle impede the effectiveness of production.

Common antibiotics used are Rumensin, which inhibits gas production in the rumen to stop bloat and Tylosin, which reduces liver infections. These antibiotics wouldn’t be necessary if cows ate what they were evolved to eat.

But the additives don’t stop there. As if cattle weren’t growing fast enough, they are injected with growth hormones like Revlar to grow at unhealthy rates. CAFOs also have gigantic tanks that pump out liquefied fats, protein supplements, liquefied vitamins, and synthetic estrogen.

All of these ‘wet ingredients’ get mixed in with the ‘dry ingredients’ like corn, soy, alfalfa, or cereals as they pass through computer-controlled feed mills. These reserves never seem to diminish as trucks arrive with new shipments every hour. However, this constant supply is necessary to keep the operation running.

On average, a cow gains 2.5-4 pounds per day on about 6 pounds of dry-weight feed per pound of gain. Multiply that by tens of thousands of cows and it all adds up quickly.

These components of CAFO diets can impact human health just as much as animal health. Acidic rumens can lead to the colonization of pathogens like E. Coli or Salmonella that can withstand acidic environments, and human stomachs happen to be acidic. Normally acids would kill off viruses and microbes, but resistant pathogens conquer those defenses, risking human infection. Chemical additives and the pesticides and herbicides used on the monocrops of industrial corn/soy farms can also accumulate in animal fatty tissues and consequently humans that consume beef. In the end, humans are not only what they eat, but also what they eat, eats.

The government SUPPORTS this diet.

Even though the government plays a critical role in monitoring the food system, these toxins and pathogens can still infiltrate our food. One of the main issues is the competing interests of the USDA. They are responsible for both meat safety and increasing meat sales.

The meat industry also has powerful ‘friends’ in the upper levels of the USDA, so they often win battles, such as the case of Supreme Beef vs. USDA, to hinder inspection rulemaking and food safety regulations. As a result, the meat industry is protected from liability at the expense of public health. This is particularly geared towards protecting the largest producers that dominate the highly consolidated and concentrated industry. The top 4 meat packers: Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef control over 80% of the market due to horizontal and vertical integration.

The USDA also impacts the retail market by certifying various brands. The most significant market changes occurred in 1978 with the introduction of Certified Angus Beef and Coleman Natural Beef.

The USDA passes the seal of approval on whether beef is organic for example, which can be a huge selling point for some consumers. They are also in charge of the grading program established in the 1920s that rates beef as standard, prime, choice, or select based on it marbling and fat content. Distinct marbling is a global aesthetic standard; more fat means better grading of the cut. Associated higher quality indicates better taste and tenderness that consumers have come to prefer. This meat isn’t healthier; in fact it is higher in saturated fats and calories on account of being fed grains verses grass.

Even if the USDA showed some concern about food safety so that products aren’t recalled, they don’t care about whether the foods make us obese or give us heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. The government assists in keeping beef cheap, both in economic terms and regarding value related to health, society, and ecology.

(continue to pg. 17)

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STOP THE T H BLOAT

glaMOOrous 15

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16 glaMOOrous

side effects: Before beginning any diet/exercise program always consult your veterinarian first. While grain-feed diets have been proven to support healthy, rapid, weight gain and provide essential nutrients, there is a slight risk that you may experience one of more of these minor side effects.

BLOAT

ACIDOSIS

ABSCESSED LIVER

OBESITY

WEAKENED IIMMUNE SYSTEM

DEATH

r.i.p. #9632

If you notice any of these symptoms, see your veterinarian immediately; many cows report initial discomfort, but being sick and not wanting to eat is not good for weight gain and there are medicines and treatments available to make you feel better.

The grass ISN’T GREENER on the other side.

The clear alternative would be grass-fed beef. This would have many benefits.

First, research has shown that grass-only diets alter fatty acid composition and improve the overall antioxidant content of beef. That means healthier beef for consumers with less bad fats, more good fats, less total calories, and more calories derived from protein than fat. The meat may be tougher since the cows actually get exercise, but people could become accustomed to that just like how they became accustomed to the taste and texture of grain-fed beef. Second, cows would be eating grass, which wouldn’t compromise their digestive systems, producing happier, healthier cows. There would be no need for antibiotics and additives that impact human health too.

Third, raising cows on grass wouldn’t make as much economic sense in the short-term, but there would be less future costs related to the health of society and the environment. If people realize the offset costs, they would be willing to pay a little more per pound. However, despite the benefits posed by grass-fed beef, expanding this model to support current meat consumption would be just as unsustainable as industrial grain-fed methods.

For starters, there simply aren’t enough grasslands to sustain the 100 million head of cattle that currently reside in the U.S. 70% of the land area in the American west is used for grazing livestock, including 260 million acres of western public lands. This land is cheap because in an arid climate, it isn’t ideal for farming so it is subsidized for ranching. Even if the government supported grass-fed operations, it would take up to 250 acres of this type of land to support a single cow for one year compared to a couple of acres of pasture in the humid east. Managing cows on vast pasturelands also requires a lot of attention and work. That’s why the CAFO model can accommodate so many animals. It squeezes as many heads as possible into the smallest area. In the alternative, each cow would require more space. The other problem with using the land in this way is that it often gets overgrazed. This compacts soil,

diminishes soil quality, reduces ground cover, and eliminates high quality forage.

While Management-Intensive Rotational Grazing can be profitable and sustainable, it would not be effective at a large scale.

Like industrial crop agriculture, larger land allotments and scales of operation for animal agriculture would reduce biodiversity. Any livestock feed operation is often dominated by a few species and reduced gene pools, but the diversity of other species is also threatened by beef monocultures. This displaces vegetation as well as other wildlife from their natural habitats. The USDA Animal Damage Control Program established in 1931, also eradicates, suppresses, and controls wildlife considered to be detrimental to the western livestock industry. Therefore, taxpayer dollars are used to fund the killing of predator species like wolves, coyotes, or bears, all the while protecting the financial interests of ranchers who graze cattle on public lands.

Grass-fed operations would still contribute to global warming. Cattle ranching is already responsible for 80% of Amazon deforestation with the rest attributed to growing soy mostly for animal feeds. If the number of cows were to match current statistics, there would still be excessive emissions of methane, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, and ammonia. Plus some argue cows would gain weight slower, thus emitting more gases during a longer life span. Manure would also continue to be an issue.

Ultimately, economies of scale in beef production are not sustainable no matter what cattle are fed. The real solution may just be to eat less meat.

grain guzzlers

VS. grass

grazers glaMOOrous 17

A R T & C U LTURE

FARMLAND WORLD

announcing the opening of a new kind of agricultural experience

18 glaMOOrous

image credits to Design with Company

This over-the-top hybrid

experience attempts to critique the ways in which humans relate to animals and other agricultural practices.

Get ready for some Eco-tainment at this new Agro-tourist Resort!

According to the architects: “The overlaps and mutable identities of animals and machines through technology are not just sites for crisis and detachment; they can also be the locus of unprecedented opportunity. Farmland World is a chain of agrotourist resorts sprinkled across the American Midwestern countryside. Part theme park and part working farm, guests arrive to the resort via train and stay as part of 1-day, 3-day or 5-day experience packages. Capitalizing on both recent governmental investments in high-speed rail infrastructure and the plentiful subsidies for farming, the network of resorts combine crowdsourced farm labor with ecotainment.�

The identity of animal and machine becomes culturally blurred with the dominance of agri-businesses and our current conventional, industrialized food system.

Monstrous, metal-structured, animal posers roam the landscape, executing planting, harvesting, and processsing tasks to take the concept of mechanized labor and production to the extreme. The proposal is sarcastic, but ultimately aims to educate and relink humans with the natural processes that sustain us in conjunction with technology.

glaMOOrous 19

“plan your trip today!”

“human/animal/m 20 glaMOOrous

Farmland World | DESIGN WITH COMPANY [allison newmeyer + stewart hicks] | 2011

achine hybrid adventure-land awaits� glaMOOrous 21

A R T & C U LTURE

ILLUMINATING LANDSCAPES

photographic exhibition of stunning feedlot aerial shots

CORONADO FEEDERS | Dalhart, TX 22 glaMOOrous

image credits to Mishka Henner

Works of ART. Hundreds of publicly available satellite photographs of U.S. feedlots are compiled and seamlessly stitched together to create ultra-high definition images of industrialized landscapes that few ever see from the ground let alone the air.

Landform Sculptures.

The astounding results appear as if actual wounds, blistering, oozing, and seeping into a manufactured, regulated grid of desaturated pens. Blood red and toxic green lagoons dominate and threaten the clusters of perceptively ant-like cattle. This alarming juxtaposition exposes a contradiction. Massive waste lagoons are created by the disposal of colossal amounts of manure that economies of scale produce, which simultaneously jeopardize the industry’s future success by degrading not only the surrounding landscape, but also air, water, and land resources far removed from the immediate site. The feedlot is not immune to the negative environmental consequences it creates due to negligent waste management.

TASCOSA FEEDYARD | Bushland, TX

RANDALL COUNTY FEEDYARD | Amarillo, TX

Seeing FEEDLOTS from a different angle.

Operating at the scale of industrialized cities, but tucked away out sight in the country, the feedlot may soon not be able to uphold the pastoral image of animal agriculture. The particular feedlots captured here are located in the Texas panhandle, but agriculture and feedlots are prominent throughout the Midwest, a region known for its vastness, Jeffersonian grid, and middle point of view. Ironically, these are often “fly over states” that go unnoticed. However, with increased general access to the internet and Google Earth satellite images, landscapes aren’t kept secret anymore. Negative environmental impacts are exposed and eventually certain deplorable aspects of meat production won’t remain hidden either.

TASCOSA FEEDYARD | Bushland, TX

RANDALL COUNTY FEEDYARD | Amarillo, TX glaMOOrous 23

H O M E & LI F ES T YLE

WASTE MANAGEMENT

too much shit to handle? never.

24 glaMOOrous

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O

n a small-scale diversified farm, manure would be a key player within an ecological feedback loop. Symbiotic relationships support the system. Cows eat meals of grass in return for helping grasses by protecting fields from tree/ shrub growth and by spreading/planting grass seeds and fertilizing them with manure. The microbes and bacteria populations in cows’ rumens allow cows’ to digest roughage while being given nutrients and an ideal environment for their population growth. Cows turn roughage that humans can’t eat into proteins and amino acids for their own sustenance, but also provide humans with those key elements and energy into their diets when humans consume their meat and milk. Of course this system only functions effectively on a grass-fed diet, but nature and evolution has a way of working things out nonetheless. In this way manure can be a benign resource that turns literal waste into a valuable input that doesn’t cost a penny.

SHIT just got Real...

The U.S. alone is home to just under 100 million cattle and calves. Between 1-2 billion cattle inhabit the globe, whether they are used for meat, milk, or other.

A gigantic population of cows translates into a lot of waste. For reference, a CAFO is identified as having 300+ animals, while a large CAFO has a head count of 1,000 or more cattle, with the largest maintaining tens of thousands head and some approaching 100,000. Due to the specialization of CAFOs that only ‘grow’ cows/cattle, the ecological benefits of manure are worthless, leaving producers with more manure than they know what to do with. In 2006, the USDA estimated more than 335 million tons of dry matter waste (liquids removed) are produced annually on farms (of all sizes) in the U.S. alone. A more recent study estimates animal factory farms produce 500 million tons of waste per year. That’s three times more than the amount of waste produced by the entire human population.

Depending on the size of the operation, a single farm or factory farm can produce a range between 2,800-1.6 million tons of manure per year. And, with world meat consumption on the rise, stock piles of manure can only be expected to multiply in size.

There are many effective DISPOSAL methods.

Various techniques have been adopted to deal with solid, liquid, or slurry (semisolid) manure. A common method is to create manure packs from bedding materials of straw, sand, wood shavings, recycled newspaper, and/or corn stalks.

The manure packs are removed and spread onto cropland or pastureland as fertilizer. Solid manure storage generally consists of a structure with paved floors and walls on 3 sides so (preferably drier) material can be stacked and contained.

Manure in liquid or slurry form is stored for at least 180 days. Pumps, transfer pipes, or channels move waste from animal housing to storage in either above ground concrete or steel tanks, or belowgrade earthen or concrete tanks. Another popular method of liquid waste storage/ disposal is waste lagoons that can hold up to 20 million gallons of liquefied manure.

Lagoons are intended to kill viruses and bacteria through anaerobic and aerobic processes.

MANURE is a benign RESOURCE. Manure is valuable for agriculture but not in excessive quantities and not when tainted with chemicals, antibiotics, disproportionate nutrients, etc. The division of beef food chain phases also inhibits the ability to use manure as fertilizer because producers don’t grow crops for animal feeds that could be fertilized with manure, or farms that could potentially use the resource are hundreds of miles away. This is why a large portion of the manure that has been treated in lagoons will get sprayed or buried nearby since there is nowhere else to put it. However, immense amounts of manure at any rate can lead to overflowing lagoons, or storage structures that leak at rates above legal limits. This can create a substantial mess and has a number of negative outcomes, especially as animal wastes are not given the same considerations as human waste which is well-managed and rather sanitary.

(continue to pg. 26)

www.managemymanure.com glaMOOrous 25

Stored manure, especially waste lagoons, become toxic social and ecological liabilities. The absence of strict government regulation enables lackadaisical waste management or disposal. Loopholes in laws, political lobbying, and weak enforcement allow factory farms to escape pollution regulations and penalties despite the incredible transformation of landscapes and communities that their negligence can cause. Consequently, the retail price of beef doesn’t include clean-up (environmental) costs or the costs of negative human health impacts.

We’ve got everything under CONTROL. CAFOs impose a techno-industrial iconography, architecture, and infrastructure on natural landscapes. Even though identifying and quantifying the presence of certain types of contaminants in soil or water requires special scientific analysis, physical or ecological changes are visible evidence that something is threatening the environment. From an aerial perspective, feedlots are easy to pick out because of the barren, desaturated, dirt pens and lake-sized lagoons that are often juxtaposed to the greenness one would expect of rural settings.

An overhaul of natural resources to fuel industry starts to signify a visible loss of scenic beauty. In this way, our surroundings can be significant indicators of toxicity or imbalance. However, city dwellers or others who live their lives removed from places like the Texas panhandle remain unaware of these landscapes and never witness them unless perhaps flying overhead in a plane from one coast to the other.

26 glaMOOrous

Yet, many of the most prominent consequences of poor waste management and the mere scale of CAFOs are not readily perceived or directly linked.

The 60-80% of nutrients, salts, pharmaceuticals, and other compounds fed to animals that are excreted as waste and remain on site in lagoons or silos that leak, break, or overflow infiltrate soil, water supplies or groundwater, air, and even the foods we eat at a microscopic level. Manure is a source of ammonia, nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), pathogens, salts, trace metals, antibiotics, pesticides, and hormones. These microbes impact the health of ecosystems and humans.

A disproportionate quantity of elements like phosphorus and nitrogen (two of the most important elements for plant growth and therefore used in synthetic fertilizers) can lead to nutrient over-enrichment or eutrophication (explosion of algae that robs water of oxygen and kills aquatic life, thus reducing biodiversity). Runoff pollutes water, even the water people drink, with top offenders including: nutrients, pathogens, siltation metals, oxygen-depleting substances, and suspended solids. Livestock waste has polluted 35,000 miles of river in 22 states and groundwater in 17 states. Manure sprayed onto farmland as fertilizer adds more harmful substances to soil, air, or water at those locations, but more significantly toxins and diseases can work their way into the fresh foods we eat. Research has revealed that crops grown with the use of CAFO manure exhibit traces of harmful chemicals and pathogens within the plants themselves, unlike a coating of pesticide for example that can be washed off. As a result, not only are neighborhoods and communities

within proximity of feedlots or CAFOs affected, so are countless others across the state, the country, or the world.

Consuming toxins, carcinogens, antibiotics, or pathogens unknowingly can’t be good for public health. (also note air quality impacts discussed in Gastronomic Aromatics pg.04) Once again, it needs to be stressed that changes must happen at a fundamental level within a complex food system.

Factory farms are industrial facilities despite their objections or the deceptive pastoral images they advertise.

Therefore, factory farms should be treated like industrial facilities and should be regulated as such with permits, inspections, and responsibility for monitoring, cleaning up, and disposing their waste products. The general public can also waive power in this situation.

There are happy stories of communities that have already succeeded in stopping the invasion of new CAFOs in their vicinity. Greater transparency and raised awareness is a formidable step that can lead to alternative farming practices with less crowded animals and ways to handle wastes.

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28 glaMOOrous

H uman relationships with domesticated animals are interesting

because both parties depend on each other to a certain extent. The evolution of the ruminant digestive system is important because the cow is able to obtain nourishment from roughage (grass, hay) which monogastric humans can not digest or convert into necessary nutrients, proteins, or amino acids for their own sustenance. Humans obtain those key elements and energy in their diet when they consume beef and milk. In addition to food, other byproducts humans get from cows/cattle include: leather goods, fertilizers from their manure, cosmetics, drugs, hair products, perfumes, gelatin, glues, and more in a modern age. In return, cows receive shelter, shade, water, ventilation, and medicines that human innovation can provide.

Humans NEED cows and cows NEED humans.

In a sense, humans do everything for cows; they tell them where to go, what to eat, where to sleep, when to have babies...to the point where cows barely even need to think. Cows also don’t even need to do manual labor anymore with mechanization; in fact, they aren’t even asked to exercise. Their only job is to eat, which they have to do to survive anyways.

At the feedlot, feed is delivered to troughs daily using a tractor/truck or mechanical feed delivery systems. Cows are taken care of and don’t have the burdens of human anxieties like making mortgage payments, putting food on the table, etc.

However, given the severity of this

management, cows don’t have freedom.

Cows are intelligent, social, and emotional creatures, but industrial processes subordinate them not only as lower life forms, but as machines.

Cows are SPOILED. On factory farms, cows are designated as numbers with no intimate connections to the owners who supposedly care about them. Cows are forced to eat feeds because there is nothing else offered. Or, if they do have the luxury of grazing in a cow-calf operation, they aren’t able to protest being whisked away from that life when they reach an acceptable weight to be finished on the feedlot. Cows are herded along by electric prods and directed to go into spaces that are unnatural or unfamiliar. A strong example is the procession leading up to the stun gun before slaughter. Cows literally can’t turn around or see anything but the animal in front of them because this is supposed to calm them down. Cows are artificially inseminated to produce calves that will be weaned from them. The list goes on.

Personal SPACE. Once cows come to the feedlot, it’s like they’ve graduated from high school and moved on to college. Separated from their mothers, they no longer drink her milk or tag along behind; they move on to live with about 100-150 pen-mates in pens about the size of basketball courts, with thousands of neighbors living in adjacent pens. These conditions can be crowded and stressful, but the greatest efficiency is achieved when the greatest number of cows can be squeezed into the

smallest spaces possible without killing them. Some go as far as comparing these conditions to concentration camps, hence the feedlot title, “Cowschwitz”, paralleling the stench and animal imprisonment to what happened to so many European Jews, gypsies, gays, disabled folks and others during WWII. While many feedlots are comprised of open-air fenced zones, many also provide some form of housing or shelter which can vary based on topography and climate.

The first type are total confinement buildings which are often naturally ventilated with apertures in the walls.

Beddings of hay or corn stalks on solid floors keep cattle dry. Some have slotted floors which manure drops through into a storage container below, however it’s not common because it could impact potential foot/leg injuries. In humid climates, the ground is often paved to minimize mud while in arid climates sprinklers are used for cooling and dust control.

Although because cows are pretty tough and in regions that don’t experience frigid, snowy winters, simple shelters will suffice.

These types include open sheds and lots, or open lots with windbreaks/shades.

These utilize strategic orientation and shading devices for cooling or protection from the elements.

Ultimately, providing these living conditions isn’t enough. Standards of waste management and air quality should be maintained in order for cows to be more comfortable and relaxed, regardless of confinement and the sheer number of animals being cared for.

happy

COWS make

happy

MEAT glaMOOrous 29

SCI E N C E & T E CHN OLOG Y

GENERATION GENOME

growing up with superior DNA

30 glaMOOrous

There are at least 800 breeds of cattle worldwide, however certain breeds are

rapidly dominating industrial dairy and beef operations to produce specific results.

Traditionally, a diverse range of cattle were raised to meet various grazing or climatic conditions for the multi-purpose of producing meat, milk, labor, and leather. Today, with the specialization and concentration of dairy and beef production, certain breeds and genetic traits are selected to produce standardized commodities. Cows are intentionally engineered to lactate and yield milk, or to achieve a certain quality grade of meat. A CNN article comparing grassfed and grain-fed beef also stated that the breed mattered as much as the feed when it came to factors of price, taste, and nutrition.

Our calves deserve the BEST and that includes their DNA. Specialization is a result of selective breeding and artificial insemination.

Heifers kept in the herd will reach sexual maturity by the age of 15 months and are bred to deliver their first calves by the time they are 24 months old. A typical gestation period is 9 months; following the first calf, the cow is rebred after 2-3 months to deliver another calf for an ideal calving interval of 12 months.

On average, cows will reproduce in the breeding herd for 7-9 years. The cows and bulls that remain in the herd are kept because of their favored genetic material that is expected to be passed down to offspring. This is classified as selective or conventional breeding which capitalizes on basic biological processes.

Commonly, these cows are artificially inseminated, i.e. a bull’s semen with living sperm is collected and introduced into the female’s reproductive tract, which requires special instruments and skilled persons. Embryos from females can also be extracted and used in a similar way.

This practice has its benefits including: better record keeping, increased conception, less risk of spreading genital diseases, ability to impregnate cows who refuse to mate at the time of oestrum, and

the semen of old or deceased bulls or bulls with superior genetics from a completely different location can still be used. It also supports an industrial beef food chain that focuses solely on producing beef.

However, advantages and greater control have impending costs.

Rest assured your calf’s traits will be SELECTED for.

Artificial is the opposite of natural. Cows are not given the option of whether they want to reproduce or not. They are tricked into thinking they are being aroused and every time a cow is milked, she thinks she is providing food for her calf. Cattle are social animals who form friendships and family bonds; given the choice, cows would have preferred partners with them, which reduces stress levels. Furthermore, these social connections are disregarded during conception and later on when calves are weaned from their depressed mothers. (continue to pg. 32)

4 of a Kind

beef cattle quadruplets are a different kind of rare

People love a nice medium rare cut of meat, but even more rare is the chance of beef cattle having multiple birtths.

Against all odds, one Red Angus Beef Cow on a ranch in Minnesota owned by Keith Sistad delivered an astounding four healthy calves!

Quadruplets in beef cattle is extremely rare (compared to about 1 in 665,000 dairy cows having quadruplets).

Although not unheard of, often at least one of the calves dies.

The calves were born nearly a month before expected. Sistad noticed the cow acting up and put her inside the barn for the night. He returned to find a set of twin heifers at 2:30am and then another set of twin heifers at 6:30am. The calves weighed between 36-48 pounds, about half the typical weight of a single newborn calf. All have been taken care of and are nursing, although Sistad does provide extra milk to supplement what the calves receive from their mother.

Usually ranchers prefer one healthy calf

to multiples because they often require extra expense and effort albeit having more profit potential. But in the end, caring for the cows is always worth it.

[With the number of cattle in the U.S. gradually decreasing, it’s nice to see a tiny, natural def ance of industrial trends towards fewer, bigger cattle producing more meat.]

glaMOOrous 31

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‘Livestock Eugenics’ reduce gene pools.

Intensive breeding creates only a few parental lineages with supposedly superior DNA dominating expansive family trees. There is a rapid trajectory towards lack of biodiversity as certain varieties are specifically bred. 80% of pure-bred dairy cows are Holstein, with only four other breeds (Jerseys, Ayrshires, Guernseys, and Brown Swiss) constituting virtually all of U.S. milking herds. Beef cattle breeds remain more diverse because of varying habitats and fluctuating market demands, yet still over 60% of beef cattle are either Angus, Hereford, or Simmental.

Herds are becoming homogenized.

It’s incredible to think that there wouldn’t even be cows in America at all if Christopher Columbus or the first British settlers in Jamestown hadn’t brought the animals across the Atlantic Ocean with them. Without diversity, entire herds or groups of cattle become susceptible to diseases. Cattle are bred for longer lifespans, better digestive systems, more milk per lactation, more marbling, or disease immunity, all in response to the threats created by an industrialized food system. The alternative would be to change aspects of factory farming so animal genetics don’t need to be so closely monitored in the first place.

BIOTECHNOLOGY promises a brighter future.

More recently, through biotechnology, genetic engineering or cloning are used to achieve even greater control of cattle DNA, perhaps with even larger detrimental impacts. Foreign DNA is inserted into the genome of the cells of genetically modified cattle via gene splicing techniques. Or, cattle are given growth hormones to accelerate development at unnatural rates. Cloned animals are also entering the food system; there are approximately 650 cloned animals in the U.S. with unique identities entered into a registry.

In 2008, the USFDA reported that food derived from clones and/or their offspring is indistinguishable from conventionally reproduced animals and found no safety concerns. However, the introduction of animals derived from intense scientific

intervention is a concern for many confused consumers.

Unfortunately, in the U.S., the approach applied to emerging food innovations is risk assessment or the basic assumption that some risk is acceptable even though threats to public health or the environment may be uncertain. In contrast, a precautionary approach is the notion that new technology is seen as risky until proven safe. In these situations, transparency becomes important. When the ‘flavor-savor tomato’ was stocked on grocery shelves in 1994, there were clear explanations in labels and brochures for consumers. However, consolidation, patents, and desire for even greater control has led to reduced transparency for consumers who unknowingly purchase foods with genetically modified inputs.

For example, processed foods may contain corn starch produced with genetically modified corn, but the label will neglect to mention it.

Withheld information deceives consumers and protects the interests of industrial agriculture. In the case of genetically modified or cloned beef, there needs to be a consistent labeling system for if problems do arise or shipments need to be recalled. Some brands use the fact that they don’t use G.M.O.s or growth hormones as a selling point, but consumers who aren’t aware of the benefits, or who simply don’t have access, won’t be convinced. Besides, all of these catchphrases like ‘No G.M.O.s’, ‘Organic’, or ‘Natural’ can be meaningless because they do not reveal the whole production process. A cow may not have been injected with hormones, but it may still be artificially inseminated; a cow may have eaten organically grown grain, but still lived in CAFO conditions. Giving true meaning to these words and creating consensus within the beef industry can eliminate confusion, but for corporations that would mean sacrificing opportunities for revenue.

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glaMOOrous 33

M

any industrial beef producers justify their methods by claiming to feed the growing population of the world. This was pretty persuasive when everyone was convinced that mechanization and technology could solve all of the world’s problems. However, today many are skeptical and not so easily sold by this agenda as contradictions and negative long-term effects within the meat industry are exposed.

CANADA 20.2kg

Global scales of economy FEEDING the World.

World markets and free trade for beef have introduced cheap beef to regions of the world where it was once a rarity or delicacy. Meat consumption was a status symbol of affluence, but now people in developing countries can afford it too and are consuming more of it. Nearly 7 million tons of animal protein is produced annually in the U.S.- enough to supply every American with 75 grams of animal protein per day compared to the recommended 56 grams of total animal and plant protein. Influenced largely by world economic powers like America or the European Union, these countries are adopting excessive western diets instead of continuing traditional cuisines.

USA kg 26.5kg

GENUS United Kin

GR Fra

USA USA 35,108,000 0,000 ,000 00 000 96,700,000 SMITHFIELD FOODS Virginia, USA TYSON FOODS Arkansas, USA MEXICO 30,600,000

BRAZIL 39,100,000 176,000,000 176,00 BRAZIL

Eat beef 3 times a day.

The contradiction is that even as meat becomes more accessible, it isn’t feasible for every person in the world to eat beef three times a day. In reality, industrialized agriculture and meat production does not succeed in feeding the world as people still starve. If we can’t produce enough food for human consumption now how can we expect to produce enough food to feed the animals that feed us?

Trends towards greater beef consumption are not sustainable and need to be reversed.

Beef becomes a commodity. A variety of consumer tastes and cultures are homogenized and satisfied by beef that meets global standards. Cheap food is de-contextualized- people really have no idea where it comes from or where been; it comes from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

34 glaMOOrous

ARGENTINA 50,400,000

GENETICS

CONSUMPTION

top global leaders

(Kg beef per capita)

CATTLE RAISING

SLAUGHTER

cattle heads

cattle heads

BUSINESS & ECO N O MY

EAT YOUR T-BONES HENDRIXS GENETICS Netherlands

gdom

RUSSIA 13.6kg

EUROPEAN UNION EW GROUP 11.1kg Germany CHINA

ROUPE GRIMAUD ance 3.4kg .

INDIA

CHINA 46,193,000 SHUANGHUI China

JAPAN 6.8kg

INDIA 21,490,000 SUDAN 38,325,000 ETHIOPIA 34,500,000

SOUTH AFRICA 12.6kg

1 1.0kg

CHAROEN POKPHAND Thailand

AUSTRALIA 22.9kg

AUSTRALIA 28,800,000

NEW ZEALAND 19.1kg

so long veggies...soon everyone will be eating beef every day

WORLD TOTAL 296,000,000

TOP 4 TOTAL 141,891,000 glaMOOrous 35

B U S I N E S S & E CON OMY

BRINGING HOME THE BEEF

behind the muscles of meatpacking

36 glaMOOrous

A few decades ago, meatpacking was one of the highest paid industrial jobs in

the U.S.; despite dangerous, unpleasant work conditions, employees could earn a solid income. However, the meatpacking workers of today often live off of Social Security payments and struggle to make ends meet.

Meatpackers CAN earn a decent living.

In a relatively short time, the meatpacking industry became centralized and concentrated, with the top 4 agribusiness firms controlling 85-90% of the market today compared to only 21% in 1970. This doesn’t help the cause for fair wages. One reason is in the 1960s, companies like Iowa Beef Packers (IBP) revolutionized the industry by opening plants in rural areas. Here they could recruit and exploit immigrant workers who are often illiterate and don’t speak English. Immigrant workers usually don’t challenge authority and are powerless- viewed as perfectly cheap and disposable laborers by profitgreedy companies. Consequently, the need for skilled butchers and unions was virtually eliminated. Other companies had little choice but to adapt or go out of business, resulting in dramatic wage reductions and skyrocketing turnover rates. Though, quite frankly, how many people would be willing to do the dangerous tasks of industrial meatpacking for so little income?

Tasks are SIMPLE, but there may be BLOOD involved.

It’s one matter to earn a low-income, but it’s another to earn a low-income while physically risking your life. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, meatpacking is America’s most dangerous occupation.

The plants where cattle are slaughtered are the most perilous because the animals vary in size, shape, and weight which means a lot of the work can’t be mechanized and must be done manually with razor-sharp or forceful tools. Some of the OSHA report headlines are horrifically shocking as if in the context of a horror movie:

“Employee Hospitalized for Neck Laceration From Flying Blade. | Employee’s Arm Amputated in Meat Auger. | One Employee Killed, Eight Injured by Ammonia Spill. | Employee Decapitated by Chain of Hide Puller Machine. | Employee Killed by Stun Gun.” These kinds of injuries and mortalities can happen in an instant due to simple errors and accidents. Workers feel obligated to keep pace with the relentless speed of the production line that involves heavy machinery, sharp knives, saws, or power tools, falling carcasses, slippery or unstable floors, etc. The golden rule is “The Chain Will Not Stop” because faster means cheaper means more profit.

And, the production line is accelerating; in 1975, 175 cattle were slaughtered per hour compared to the current figure of 400 cattle per hour (or 7,000calves and 130,000cattle per day in U.S.).

Other injuries of trauma/reoccurring pain take a longer time to develop, but involve just as much suffering. Injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome or tendinitis are caused by several hours of repetitive motions performed every day as workers become part of the machinery. This can be caused by some of the more obvious tasks like hacking at carcasses or lifting loads/boxes, but also result from less suspected tasks like cutting with scissors.

Poor environmental quality, particularly air, also leads to chronic diseases, especially respiratory diseases like bronchitis, asthma, or acute respiratory distress syndrome.

In 1999, more than 25% of 150,000 meatpacking workers suffered a jobrelated injury or illness, however data from injury reports is often falsified and workers are put back on the job as quickly as possible to minimize lost work days, so those numbers aren’t necessarily accurate. Slaughter/Packinghouse culture encourages hiding injuries and pain.

For example, supervisors’ and foremen’s annual bonuses are tied to the injury rate of their workers, so they are discouraged to report injuries or seek out the plant nurse.

EMPLOYEE of the month

JURGIS RUDKUS company: Iowa Beef Packers (cattle slaughter plant)

location: Amarillo, Texas, U.S.A. age: 45 years of service: 24 native country: Mexico native language: Spanish jobs performed: Bleeder Grading Room Worker Hide Trimmer Splitter Warehouse Inventory Restroom Attendant “Jurgis has always been a loyal employee who doesn’t complain. He is fearless and has a strong, sturdy build perfect for applying power.

As a result, he has taken on some of the most difϐicult tasks along the production line became so proϐicient that he served as a ϐloater and we moved him on to more challenging tasks. Overall, Jurgis has contributed tremendously for over two decades and intends to work here at IBP for the rest of his career.” * since the time of the first interview for this recognition, Jurgis Rudkus has been fired from IBP; no comment on the reason

(continue to pg. 45)

glaMOOrous 37

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38 glaMOOrous

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“It is in our best interest to take care of our workers and ensure that they are protected and able to work every day,” says Janet M. Riley, a vice president of the American Meat Institute, the industry’s trade association.

“We are very concerned about improving worker safety. It is absolutely to our benef t.”

Self-insured agribusinesses will do whatever possible to delay or avoid medical payments because those costs are subtracted from profits. When a worker is injured at IBP s/he has the option to sign a waiver stating s/he will not sue IBP in order to receive immediate medical care by company-approved doctors (for life). Otherwise the individual loses all medical benefits. The other option is to not sign, risk losing your job, pay your own medical bills and file a lawsuit that you may or may not win. Needless to say, most sign the waiver. But, even if a person signs, it doesn’t guarantee s/he won’t get fired; workers with disabilities lose value.

Thousands of workers mistreated and discarded due to no fault of their own, having done everything ‘right’. Yet most workers have little to no value in the eyes of the corporation anyways regardless of loyalty, consistency, or quality of work.

The OSHA fine for the death of a worker is $70,000- a marginal sum for companies with annual revenues measured in tens of billions, and probably an amount less than what it would cost to cover most surgeries/treatments or lawsuits.

An alternative to this unfair treatment and horrific work conditions would be to let workers select their own physicians instead of having to use biased companyselected ones. Another positive change would be to not permit meatpacking companies to insure themselves as higher premiums would force them to take safety issues seriously for once. Overall, these disturbing scenarios, here not about the treatment of animals, but of humanity itself, continue due to lack of general awareness or outrage.

glaMOOrous 39

T R AV E L & L E I S U R E

BON VOYAGE!

beef cattle have the privilege to traverse the globe

40 glaMOOrous

Just like humans, cattle have places to go and different ways of getting there.

In commercial agriculture, cattle need to be moved for a number of reasons including: marketing, going from ranches to feedlots to slaughter, re-stocking, change of ownership, or relocating in times of drought for example. Typically, the animals travel by hoof, road motor vehicles, rail, and ship.

Fasten your seatbelt and ENJOY the ride.

Currently the multi-billion dollar live export trade is increasing, especially in Australia and New Zealand.

The most common and versatile mode of cattle transportation is by road. With the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, people and goods can be distributed rather quickly and directly. Cattle and other livestock are no exception, especially when they are regarded as future commodities, packed into trucks like cargo.

SPEEDY Interstates.

Transportation vehicles should take the well-being of animals into consideration.

First, it’s just common sense that only cattle who can endure the journey should be loaded (i.e. not sick, pregnant, or injured). Transportation should be scheduled for when temperatures are cooler in early morning or at night. The shortest and most direct route is also preferred. There should be sufficient ventilation, non-slip floor surfaces, proper drainage and waste management, and

protection from sun or rain. Cattle should also be able to stand comfortably without being overcrowded. For full-grown cattle the ideal floor area per animal is 1-1.4m2.

If there is extra space, partitions should be added to keep animals from being thrown about. Additionally, cattle should not be tied up and require turning every 30 minutes or so. Finally, cattle should also be familiar with other animals on board so they aren’t strangers and apt to get rowdy.

However, these measures are not always followed.

animals were lying in several inches of filth from their own manure and urine.

The cargo spaces were so inadequately ventilated that hundreds of cows died from the toxic levels of their own copious ammonia emissions. Hundreds more perished shortly after docking from trauma incurred on the trip. The instance led to outrage and requests to ban international live animal trade until better safeguards could be put in place.

When producers and distributors are negligent, and even if they are careful, transportation is the most stressful and injurious stage in the food chain for cows.

The effects are disturbing and numerous including: trauma, lacerations, broken bones, bruising, trampling, suffocation, dehydration, exhaustion, heart failure/ stroke, heat stroke, bloat, weight loss, etc. Additionally, when cattle from different herds are confined together for long periods with poor ventilation and increased stress, it creates breeding grounds for infectious diseases, leading to viral outbreaks. It’s puzzling to think about how this cruelty persists despite carcass devaluation and thus, loss of profit.

Due to the controversy of livestock transport, some could argue that dead animals should be shipped instead.

However, this would demand significant changes with the current highly centralized system in which the phases of slaughter and processing/packing take place at massive scales in few locations. A more localized approach would be economically inefficient for the big names in the industry. Transporting butchered meat would also call for more refrigeration. In contrast, live animals can move with their own power which makes loading and unloading much easier and they won’t spoil (but they just might contract infectious diseases that will make the consumer sick anyways). Others still, argue that animals should never have to travel long distances at all. This would favor a more localized approach, but again would involve changing fundamental components of an industrialized food system which would take considerable time.

SMOOTH Sailing.

Sea vessels for transportation are designed to carry 900-1600 cattle for up to as long as 5,000km.

In 2012, hundreds of cattle loaded on a freighter ship en route from America to Russia were trapped in what critics referred to as a ‘torture chamber’. The

Living PROOF.

pack your bags glaMOOrous 41

GLOBALIZED

BEEF BREEDING 0 miles United Kingdom CONSUMPTION United States

7,125 miles

11,425 miles

FEEDLOT Brazil

7,690 miles

0 from farm embryo to fork

37,835 miles

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T R AV E L & L E I S U R E

Beefville, U . S . A . transparency tour

EXPERIENCE PACKAGES SPONSORS

The Beefville, U.S.A. exp erience takes you through al l 7 phases of beef produ ab out the b eef you’re eating? We’re happy to give them to you. For all you skep So pack your bags for an unforgettable exp erience replete with lots of cows and comfortable accommo dations, thrilling activities, and meals your mouth should a only provide the b est for our customers - we care ab out satisfying you and most

RARE: 2 days

The complete exp erience isn’t for everyone. This trip takes a pleasant drive along scenic Rt. 5 in California.

The day trip b egins bright and early with the cowb oys and ends with a decadent steak dinner at Harris Ranch.

Deseret Cattle & Citrus Whole Fo o ds Markets

Winter Livesto ck A McDonalds

COW-CALF OPERATION

LIVE CATTLE AUCTION

CATTLE FEEDLOT

pasture overture the weaning center meet the herd match-maker the squeeze load ‘em up!

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44 glaMOOrous

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This trip offers snap-shots of Lake Michigan as the bus travels down Interstate 43. Intended for the risk taker, a full day is dedicated to the packing plant, followed by a gro cery store pit stop and fine city-life dining.

for brochures and more info. to plan your trip go to:

www.beefvilleusa.com WELL DONE:

2 weeks

You want to know it all? Then take a trip across America (literally) exp eriencing for yourself all of the top p erforming links in the b eef fo o d chain. The journey b egins in Florida and ends with the country’s finest mouth-watering steak in Bro oklyn.

Cactus Feeders

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US Dept. of Agriculture

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FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT

STEAKHOUSE RESTAURANT

pristine clean back-ro om butcher a-maze-ing aisles delicious displays meat made easy

drive-thru menu mania monumental signage order up! cozy b o oths

stellar cellar b e our guest! kitchen conco ctions categorize the cut tender tastebuds

glaMOOrous 45

cow-calf operations

live auctions

feedlots

beef pack

TOP 15 (National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc.)

(locations based off Winter Livestock Auction)

TOP 15 (National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc.)

TOP 10 (National

Beefville

transp

Agri-Beef Agri-Be -Be eef Co. Co o.. o Agri Beef Co. Ag Agr

J.R. .R. R Simplot Sim S mplot Co. Koch Argricultural Arg gricultural Co. g

Pa Padlock k Ranch h Company Compan pany

J.R. .R. Simplo Simplot ot Co. o

J.R. Simplot Simpllot Co. o.

15

Padlock Ra Ranch anch Company

190

Simplo ot Co. J.R. Simplot

Blair Bros.

Bro B os. Ranch Ra anch Blair

Duane ne Martin Marttin n Livestoc Livestock ck

Agri Beef Co. Co o. o Four States Sta tates Feedyard Inc.

Trrue Ranches Ra Ran an nches LLC True JBS BS B S Five ive ve R ve Rivers, LLC

J.R. Simplot Simp plot Co. p Simplot J.R. Simp plot Co. p

JJBS Beeff Co.

Innovative Innovat Innov nov v iive Livestock k

Gre

Silv ver Spur Ranch Ra R anc nch Silver Oppliger Opplige ge er Feedyard, e Fe F e edyard, Inc. I

Foods oods ds,, Inc. In I Tyson Foods, Duane Martin Duan uane Mar rti tiin Livestock Liv Li

Cargill Meat M Solutions Solutio ons ons

PACKING PLANT

Gottsch Cattle Co. C o.

JJBS BS Five Rivers, BS Riv iv vers, LLC C Monfort Monfo M onforrtt Beef Bee Beef

JBS Beef Co.

Silver S Spu ur R u Ranch Silver Spur

COW-CALF OPERATION

Duane Martin M Livestock

Greeley, Colorado Agri Beef Bee ef Co. e

Duane Martin Livestock

Ione, California

5

Four States Stat ates Feedyard eedyard ar Inc. ar Inc. Cargill M Meat Solutions

Ca argill ar rg M Meat Solutions Cargill

Innovative Innovati vativ va ve Livestock Services Inc.

JJBS BS Five e Rivers, LLC Cargill Ca C atttle Feeders ders Co. Cattle

Coalinga, California

Harris Ranch Feedyard

National Natio l Beeff Packing Co. Nati Nationa

Cactus Cact actu us Fee u Feeders eders

CATTLE FEEDLOT STEAKHOUSE

Harris iss Ra an nch Ranch

Irsik & Doll Feed Fe eed Services Ser Se vices

LIVE CATTLE

S ates St es Fee edyard yard Inc. Incc Four States Feedyard

Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant

25

Coalinga, California

Koch

Cattle e Empi Empire pire LLC LL

Fo oods, Inc. o Tyson Foods,

Winter L Cargi Cargill argill rg g Me gi

Catttle Co. AzTz Cattle

Monfort Monfor n rrt Beef

JBS BS Five e Rivers, LLC

JBS Five e Rivers, LLC

Rivers, JBS Five ive ve eR Ri vers, s,, LLC Cargill rgill gill C g Cattle Cattlle Feeders Co.

CATTLE FEEDLOT

Solutions Cargill ill l M Meat So S olution ns

Oppliger Opp pligerr Feedyard, p ard, rd rd, d, Inc. Inc.

FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT

Cactus Feeders

Cactus, Texas

Caviness Beef Ca Cavine Cavi avin avine vine v vin esss Be e B ee eef e ef P Packers ackers Friona Industries L.P. Frio rio iona o Ind on dustr es L.P P.

McDonalds

Tyson Tyso on Foods Foods, s,, Inc.

San Bernardino, California

Koch Argricultural K Ko Arrrgricu u tural Co. ult

JBS BS B S Beef Be f Co. Co o.

Cattle AzTz Ca atttle Co.

Beef Co..

JBS BS S Be B eff Co e Silver Sp Spur pur Ranch p h Pinal Feedyard, Fee edy e d ard, ard a ar d Inc. Incc

ET Waggoner Wagg ggon on on ner ne er Estate Es Estat ta ate

27

JBS Five e Rivers, rs, s,, LLC LL

10

G King Ra Kin R Ran n

Sam am m Kane Kane Beef B Bee Be e

Parker Parke Par arker Ranch Ra anch

king operations

grocery stores

fast-food (McDonalds)

steakhouse restaurants

l Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc.)

clusters determined with Google Earth

clusters determined with Google Earth

clusters determined with Google Earth

e, U . S . A .

parency tour

MAP

PACKING PLANT

American Am merica can Foods Fo ood dss Groups d

American Foods Groups

Green Bay, Wisconsin

90

43 JBS Beef Bee ef Co. e JBS S Beef Bee Beef Be ee eff Co. Co.

Me eat Solutions Cargill Meat

STEAKHOUSE

JBS Beef Be f Co. Co

GROCERY STORE Whole Foods Market

Peter Luger

180

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Brooklyn, New York

Tyson Ty yson Foods, ys F Fo oods, Inc. nc. nc c.

STEAKHOUSE

Tyson Foods, Inc. n Fo ods, Inc In nc. nc. nc c.

k Services Inc.

Gibson’s Bar & Steakhouse Chicago, Illinois

maha ah h Packing C o. eater Omaha Co.

865

National Beef eef ef Packing C ef Co. o.

Foote Cattle Co.

RARE

Tyson Ty Tyso Tys yso on n Foods, Food Inc.

Cargill Cattle Feeders Car Ca Carg C argill arg gii C g gill atttle e Feeder rs C Co Co.

AUCTION

h Argricultural Argric icultural all Co Co..

ivestock Auction

eat ea at Solutions Sol Solu

Dodge City, Kansas

40

MEDIUM

Tyson Tyson Tyso y Foods, F oo od od ds, IInc. ds nc. c c.

24

WELL DONE

475

GROCERY STORE

ch h Inc.

Whole Foods Market

Austin, Texas

COW-CALF OPERATION

Deseret Cattle & Citrus St. Cloud, Florida

Processors Proccessors Processo Process essor

[n.b. map is a full-size, folded tear-out in print version]

BROCHURE COVERS

DESERET

CATTLE & CITRUS

COW-CALF OPERATION

St. Cloud, Florida

Beef cattle begin their lives

as calves, who require the nourishment of their mothers’ milk and pasture grasses to develop.

Deseret Ranches have functioned primarily as a cattle operation for over fifty years, despite also producing citrus, which one would expect to come from Florida. The ranch specializes in producing quality calves that are sold after weaning to feeding operations around the country before they become beef. This involves moving herds into new pastures, prepping corrals and chutes, breeding, and weaning. Gaining the reputation as one of the leading cattle operations took years of effort and applying the latest health, nutrition, and handling ‘innovations’.

When the ranch was first founded, bred cattle didn’t exist in the region, so they developed a breeding program to select for traits that tolerate the heat, humidity, insects, and heavy rainfall of the climate, as well as traits for beef quality, rate of gain, reproductive capacity, and calving ease. Today, they utilize

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a three-way rotational breeding program that maximizes hybrid vigor. They also conduct research to grow higher quality grasses for the cattle to graze on.

Despite being in a remote area, the ranch is still close to urban centers that push for community development, placing pressures on the land, water, and transportation corridors.

The ranch intends to continue agricultural practices in harmony with natural systems and diverse wildlife. It claims to be committed to the regeneration and conservation of natural resourcesespecially water, and the future long-term planning of the region to preserve a Central Florida quality of life. For example, the ranch deploys a strategy called “edge effect”, positioning patchworks of woodlands and wetlands amid pastures rather than clearing off all the land for grazing. They want the public to hear this message and they have received honors/recognition for environmental stewardship.

bragging rights Building Florida’s Legacy.

Committed to Florida’s Future.

44,000 1,300

bulls

33,000

the HERD

cows total

calves per year

13

cattle management units ( > 1,000 cattle per cowboy)

highest weaning rates in the industry

BREEDS simbrah, braford, brangus angus

acres 160,000 acres for pastureland

the LAND

259,000

“BEST IN REGION” HONORS from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association for environmental stewardship & land management

glaMOOrous 49

BROCHURE

PASTURE OVERTURE How do es one get around 259,000 acres without a horse? How ab out a gondala?

Fly ab ove vast pastures, wetlands, wo o dlands, and waterways from an aerial viewp oint.

MEET THE HERD We’re all on big happy family here, and our cows are no exception.

MAP OF THE RANCH 4

Orlando

01 02

Kissimmee

Cocoa

03

04

Atlantic Ocean 05

St. Cloud 06

95 07

08 10

09 11 12

14

corrals miles

0

25

13 15

M

Cows fall Stroll the ge the computer s bulls and pr will lo ok like

MATCH-MAKER

l in love, didn’t you know? estation barn and then use system to match cows with redict what their offspring e. Check back in 9 months!

08 N

corral plan

feet 0

50

LOAD ‘EM UP! Ramps aren’t made for slipping on. Make your ways through the gates to the final destination.

the SQUEEZE Keep Calm and Carry on in the Hydraulic Chute. No shot, weigh-in, or check-up ever killed anyone.

the WEANING CENTER Weaning is a natural pro cess for calves in order from them to grow. Cows may b ellow, but every child needs to b ecome indep endent. Learn more ab out the pro cess and conquer the separation gates.

250

BROCHURE COVERS

WINTER

LIVESTOCK AUCTION LIVE CATTLE

AUCTION

Dodge City, Kansas

Established in 1936, Winter

Livestock is one of the oldest cattle auctions in the nation. It has five locations: Dodge City, KS, Pratt, KS, LaJunta, CO, Enid, OK, and Riverton, WY. The cattle auction has sold over 30 million head of cattle for the area’s finest cattlemen, always striving to get them top dollar for their animals. With a focus on cattle, the facilities of all the auction buildings and pens are maintained and laid out with special care for cattle needs.

The environment of the auction is quite casual; often there will be coffee or other concessions like on would expect to find at a sporting event or movie theater. Venues will facilitate not only auctions, but other social gatherings, making them hubs for cattlement to bond and converse about anything and everything to do with the industry.

Today, people don’t even need to go to the auction to participate with technologies of real-time, live stream auctions on the internet.

Producers can receive constant updates on the status of the market.

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Using terms like consignments or commodities when refering to heifers, cows, and steers being auctioned off, this sector is highly commodified and involves a lot of speculation. It’s all about getting the highest price, not just for large corporations making billions of dollars, but also for the small ranchers who depends on marginal prices to support their families.

Many ranchers pursue other careers in addition to ranching in order to make ends meet.

This requires predicting future costs dependent on what beef consumers will be willing to pay in order to preserve and build beef demand in the industry. The challenge is not necessarily beef quantity, but beef quality as prices increase and there is incentive for less cattle with larger carcass weights which affects portion size and market costs. Beef retailers form relationships with grocery retailers or restaurant owners to minimize the impact of high unit beef prices from larger meat cuts. Premium price needs to match premium qualities of

bragging rights We strive for top dollar on your cattle.

LIVE L IV VE V

over

30 million cattle SOLD LIVE STREAM VIDEO

AUCTIONS

online for your convenience

and frequently updated market reports to keep you in the now so you can predict for the future markets marbling, tenderness, flavor, nutrition, etc. In this way, certain criteria for value are established that become significant marketing pitches.

Breeding efforts in cow-calf operations become critical to controlling beef quality and anticipating market trends. This phase of production depends on the prior phase and must look ahead to ensure efficiency and profits in later phases of the food chain.

glaMOOrous 53

BROCHURE

cattle barn/outdoor pens

livestock center

swine building

cattle barn/outdoor pens

ANIM

SITE PLAN

sheep and goats

feet

0

50

100

200

FOOD

CONCESSIONS

MUNCHIES WIFI WANNA-BE

Can’t have a show without some p op corn and candy to munch on.

Show sold out? No worries. Just use your mobile device or computer to tune in live any time.

SOLD! Ho ot and holler with a huge round of applause for the cattle. They are the stars in this arena so we give them the celebrity treatment.

AUCTION EXHIBIT

RESTROOMS

MAL DOCK

open pens

covered pens

DOCK

aaisle ais isle sle w/ w/ ccatwalk caaatw attw twa walk alk

CASTING CALL It takes time to get your moment in the sp otlight, but you never know who is watching from ab ove.

CATTLE PENS

HOLDING

DRESSING ROOMS Get ready for your close-up!

Final touches b ehind the curtain b efore the big debut.

PLAN

feet

0

15

30

60

BROCHURE COVERS

CACTUS

FEEDYARD BEEF CATTLE

FEEDLOT

Cactus, Texas

Cactus Feeders may be the second

largest cattle feeding operation in America, but it is the world’s largest privately-owned cattle feeding operation with 10 feedyards in the Texas Panhandle and southwestern Kansas. This region provides the climate and access to abundant grain for feeds and cattle that is a formula for success.

While feeding and rapid cattle weight gain are the top priority at the feedlot, other important considerations are executed to keep the massive operations running. These include: cattle/ feed financing, cattle performance record keeping and research to identify ideal genetics and practices, cattle marketing that responds to a dynamic beef industry market, environmental and food safety, and state-of-the-art health and nutrition programs. However, all of this is done exclusively to maximize cattle performance and enhance profitablility from the cattle that are fed. Therefore, issues like animal health or environmental stewardship only happen out of

56 glaMOOrous

necessity, not as leading principles.

Relationships with grain-feed producers and pharmaceutical developers of antibiotics are also key to operation success.

The process starts and ends with the receiving/shipping area with non-slip chutes and ramps. Flow of cattle and spatial planning are critical for control, efficiency, and management. Such strategies aim to reduce the stress levels of the cattle so they remain calm and don’t get sick. The feedlot also provides hospital pens or barns for sick animals to get treatment. Feeding cattle is a highly computerized and automated process that involves formulating and mixing feed rations, distributing rations and water, weighing animals, etc.

Additionally, pen layouts facilitate feed schedules as well as drainage for waste control using strategies like tanks and waste lagoons.

Again, decisions are made to promote cattle and beef as commodities with commercial value.

bragging rights Let’s do business. You bring cattle, and we’ll feed them.

Realize the value of your cattle with the Cactus way.

cattle capacity

Cactus Feedyard

75,000

cattle capacity

the FEEDLOT

527,000

10 feedyard locations

( Texas Panhandle and Kansas )

influencing the beef industry as the largest, privately-owned cattle feeding operation in the WORLD

CATTLE BUSINESS OF THE CENTURY AWARD from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association revenues exceeding

$750 million 500+ employees ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP AWARD from the Texas Cattle Feeders Association

glaMOOrous 57

BROCHURE

PLAN 0

400

feet

2000

TANK TUNNEL Our waste tanks never leak and to prove it, we’ve constructed a tunnel b elow of the same metal and b olts for you to walk under. But you won’t feel a drop.

ARC

People a dung as your own out of ou

LAZY LAGOON Our water is so fresh, we’re letting you take a dip! Relax as you float along a waste lago on in an inflatable tub e and take a moment to bask in the Texan sun.

PLAY PEN Conveniently, cattle p ens are ab out the same size as a basketball court.

Sho ot some ho ops or play your hand at a variety of other games in one of our p ens that has no cattle in it.

SU

Gra silo tech tur adr

beef packing plant Cactus

Cactus Feeders

feet

0

HI-MANURE

all around the world use cow a building material. Build n architectural masterpiece ur dried manure blo cks.

UPER-SILO

ain feeds are mixed and stored in os using the latest computer hnology. Our engineers have ned one of our silos into an enaline pumping amusement ride.

TROUGH TRAIL Travel in a trailer hitched to the feed truck to see the cattle up close and watch them do what they do b est-eat.

SITE PLAN 200

1000

BROCHURE COVERS

JBS

BEEF CO. Greeley, Colorado

PACKING

P L A N T

World’s Biggest BEEF Producer

JBS began over 50 years ago as a small

family-owned beef company in Brazil and has expanded into a multi-billion dollar global corporation. Today, it is the biggest foreign meat company on US soil and the world’s biggest producer of beef.

The corporation buys poorly running facilities to make them more efficient, as was the scenario when they bought the Greeley slaughterhouse previously owned by Swift in 2007. Additionally they operate at a global scale with facilities in countries like Brazil and Australia that lead the way in beef exports. This success depends on success in previous phases of the food chain to meet standards and assure customers of the quality they expect. Accordingly, JBS uses vertical integration to dominate the feeding operation sector as well.

Each phase requires precision and efficiency, but perhaps this phase requires the most. Every task is calculated and the production line moves without stopping like clockwork that would never be possible without massive built environments of mechanization and sequencing. This is done for some safety precautions, but more so for speed to reduce per-head production costs.

60 glaMOOrous

One of the leading designers of animal handling and slaughter pracitices is Temple Grandin, an Autistic woman who has deep understanding for the way animals view the world. Her approaches promote animal welfare during slaughter with materials and spatial relationships that put the animals at ease as they move sequentially through our food system in conjuntion with machines.

Although cattle slaughter is more challenging for standardization because cattle range in size, the processes of the slaughterhouse and packing/processing plants strive to achieve product outputs that are consistent. Technology has enabled greater automation for packaging, inspection, and speed, but at the same time, no machine is more capable of deboning and cutting meat than human laborers who endure dangerous conditions along assembly lines. This ideal output, centering on precision and efficiency for maximum profit, caters to customer values of appearance, flavor, portion size, or safety to deliver and exceed

expectations. A number of brands like Swift or Certified Angus Beef are then marketed and distributed to reatailers, wholesalers, and foodservice establishments.

Therefore, this phase is crucial to transforming the cattle commodity into the beef commodity and is responsible for removing the blood and messiness of that process to make the consumption experience of eating convenient and pleasurable.

Looking to the future, the company strives for sustainability, as current research attempts to reduce carbon footprints, improve fuel/energy efficiency, especially regarding transporation, and create technologies to purify and conserve water. They also claim to care about employees and their communities.

As a leader in the industry, these actions are being taken because of the pressure to serve as an example.

Business not depends on social responsibility and natural resources so that production can continue at its current magnitude. What makes a difference is with which attitude this problem is combated.

bragging rights Our mission: to provide the best possible service, selection, and value to our customers.

5,400 3,200

workers

3.3 million

the BEEF PLANT

cattle slaughtered per day

pounds of beef

8 beef plants in the US ( CO, TX, UT, NE, WI, AZ, MI, PA )

2012 + 2013 SmartWay Excellence Award from the U.S. EPA for leadership in freight supply chain environmental performance and energy eďŹƒciency

glaMOOrous 61

BROCHURE

SITE PLAN

feet

0

50

500

liver r QC

sorting gate

squeeze chute PLAN

to knocking box & kill floor

scale

feet

0

10

beef wash cabinet

THE CHUTE

outrail be

This chute isn’t for the laundry. There’s no b etter way to organize cattle efficiently and keep them calm. Don’t slip!

lactic acid HANDLER CATWALK sorting gate

gutting stand

STAGING AREA CROWD PEN

blocking gate

head wash cabinets

HOLDING PENS

INSPECT

Nothing ge goal to mak the b est qu see if they c

X X

lactic acidd

X

QC

QUALITY CONTROL

X

USDA INSPECTOR

LIVE CATTLE SCALE X

HOLDING PEN

MAIN CARCASS LINE HEAD LINE

SCALE HOUSE

OFFAL LINE LIVER LINE PAUNCH LINE

HOLDING PEN

HOLDING PEN

HOLDING PEN

HOLDING PEN

B

A F s

knocking box

OUTRAIL LINE OFFAL CONVEYOR ELEVATED STAND

HOLDING PEN

LIVE CATTLE UNLOADING

CROWD PEN

SQUEEZE CHUTE

conveyo

kill floor PLAN

PLASTIC WRAP Beef is packaged to seal in freshness. Automated machines can package all of our meat.

What would it feel like to b e wrapp ed in plastic?

FREEZE TAG Co olers keep meat at the p eak of freshness. The b est way to stay warm is to stay active. Why not play a game of tag amid aisles of hanging meat?

COOLERS

COOLERS FABRICATION

racks

USDA OFFICE, LUNCHROOM & BATHROOM

CLEAN MEN’S LUNCHROOM

CLEAN MEN’S BATHROOM

X

DIRTY MEN’S LUNCHROOM

CLEAN MEN’S LOCKERS

WOMEN’S BATHROOM & LOCKERS

ench

X

SANITATION OFFICE

PLANT MANAGER’S OFFICE QC OFFICE

SUPERVISOR’S BATHROOM & LOCKERS

DIRTY MEN’S LOCKERS

KILL FLOOR OFFICE

SUPPLY & LAUNDRY ROOM

KNIFE SHARPENING

DIRTY MEN’S BATHROOM

SAFETY COORDINATOR FIRST AID ROOM

viscera table X

cooler

intestine conveyor

X

foot table

reinspection table cooler

QC

TION PERFECTION

ets by our insp ectors. It’s our ke sure our b eef is safe and of uality. Test our insp ectors and can pick up on the ‘bad’ meat you pass by them.

scale

upstairs maintenance shop and surveillance recovery stand

SINEWY SPEEDWAY

backers’ belt

Watch our exp ert b eef cutters slice their way through the pro duction line in record time

down puller

tail puller machine

side puller machine

UPSIDE-DOWN HANGER

denotion table

BULLS-EYE!

We can’t avoid the blo o d, but you can!

Hang-glide your way over the mess among the susp ended freshly slaughter cows.

Are you a sharp sho oter?

Find out with this stun gun imulation.

bleed pit area

or electrical stimulation

BROCHURE COVERS

WHOLE FOODS MARKET GROCERY

S T O R E

specialization in USDA-certified ORGANIC + ALL NATURAL FOODS

D

etermining the best grocery stores isn’t just about making the highest profits or having the most locations.

There are countless other criteria that leads to satisfied customers including: prices, quality, variety, and availability of products, cleanliness, and customer service. In addition to food, grocery stores sell a shopping experience to gain customer loyalty. Many would say the ideal grocery store should enhance shopping experience, help us to eat better, and provide one-stop-shopping, which in this case, must include beef.

Whole Foods fits this criteria and has been recognized through multiple polls as one of the top grocery stores in the U.S. mostly due to it’s specialization in organic and natural foods. This fact sets them apart from a lot of competitors, which is very enticing for people who want to eat better or know more about where their food is coming from. As a national food movement takes shape and critiques issues within the conventional food system, many people are becoming more concerned about the quality of their food. The success of the store reveals this trend. Whole Foods wants to provide this transparency and education about healthy eating for their buyers so they can make informed choices.

64 glaMOOrous

Austin, Texas At Whole Foods, all of the beef sold has passed very rigorous standards.

Farm animal and meat quality standards regarding the producer’s raising and handling practices, feed, facility design, environmental conditions, employee training, and animal welfare during raising, transportation, and processing are outlined and enforced. Cattle are never ever given antibiotics or supplemental growth hormones; there are no animal byproducts in feeds; and cattle are raised on pasture/range for at least 2/3 of their life. Such standards hold producers accountable, forcing them to work with nature, not against it. And, the butcher is always free to answer questions about beef.

Basically, Whole Foods so kindly does all of the research for shoppers, selecting only the best quality, so that they may make purchases with peace of mind.

However, even this sustainable, transparent approach can be very misleading. Questions need to be asked about how stores like Whole Foods can proliferate without contradicting their core values.

Conventionalization is the process through which an alternative food value chain becomes only a slightly different version of an industrial one; this is happening at Whole Foods, but goes unnoticed by customers.

First, the definition of organic is weak because the USDA is so heavily influenced by agribusiness lobbying. Almost all of the organic food in the US comess out of California where five or six huge farms dominate a consolidated industry. Yet, Whole Foods makes you think you are supporting small,

local farmers. They profile local farms, but don’t actually sell their product because that would be nearly impossible for a company operating in multiple states.

Organic also doesn’t necessarily save energy like advocates claim mostly due to transportation costs. Surprisingly, not all food sold is even organic or natural and there are conventionally raised options mixed in. The store puts tremendous effort into giving customers a vague sense of virtue.

Because so much emphasis is placed on food ethics, customers are mislead about what they are really paying premium prices for.

A delightful, clean, seemingly uncomplicated shopping experience can be had at Whole Foods. Yet, despite not selling industrial beef, the store still operates like other grocery stores that do and falls into the same traps, which is concerning when they are supposed to be an example of the alternative.

bragging rights America’s Healthiest Grocery Store.

VALUES MATTER. 384 + 10 + 9 = U.S.A.

Canada

UK

stores

2,600

the STORE

403

F R EESH S H FA R MS MS G R O C E RY S T O R E

natural + organic products

1980

year first Whole Foods opened in Austin, TX

sales in 2014:

$14.2 billion “100 BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR” ranked by FORTUNE magazine 17 consecutive years

TOP glaMOOrous 65

BROCHURE

PLAN 0

10

outdoor market

SITE PLAN

feet

0

PRISTINE CLEAN

100

Gro cery stores are always sp otless.

Sanitary sp ecifications rivaling a hospital assure you your meat was prepared in clean conditions and is safe for your family.

500

floral

produce bulk

A

W W m c

international

seafood

wines

D

N

dairy

feet

100

dining

juice & gelato

restrooms sushi

check-out

chef-prepared food

MEAT MADE EASY natural groceries whole body

Never co ok a day in your life with pre-co oked meals steamy hot and ready to make an app earance at your table or one of our tables.

chef kitchens

A-MAZE-ING AISLES

Why is the b eef always at the back?

What’s the longest route and how many items will make it into your cart on the way?

frozen f

DELICIOUS DISPLAYS

cheeses natural groceries candy

bakery coffee and tea natural meats & poultry

Now there’s some high quality, fresh b eef.

So many packages, all lined up in neat little rows exactly the way you exp ect to find them- abundant and fair-priced.

BACK-ROOM BUTCHER Put on a parka and chill in the back freezer ro om with skilled butchers who know their b eef and make it lo ok like fo o d, not animals.

BROCHURE COVERS

MCDONALD’S RESTAURANTS FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT

WORLD’S LEADING GLOBAL FOOD SERVICE RETAILER

M

cDonald’s was founded in 1948 as a self-service drive-in restaurant. The menu had only 9 items including the staple 15 cent hamburger. The second McDonald’s opened in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955, a red and white tiled builing with Golden Arches designed by architect Stanley Meston. The golden arches have been an iconic symbol of the franchise, important to the brand recognition across the globe.

Modifications were made to the restuarants over time like the additions of indoor seating in 1962 or the first drive-thru in 1975. Both of these elements are common today and create a dining environment of quick, or onthe-go service. One can get food without leaving their vehicle in a matter of minutes after ordering. The same is true inside, where one waits in line, orders at the counter, and can find a table to sit at and enjoy their meal. The fast-food architecture is laid out to perform this kind of service. The place the food is sold is as important as the food itself because it shapes an experience of convenience and delight.

Today, the menu offers a multitude of options from wraps, to salads, to coffee, but burgers like the Big Mac continue to

68 glaMOOrous

San Bernardino, California be the most iconic foods. In 2002, the corporation launched its dollar menu. The fact that they can have certain food items cost only a dollar, such as a hamburger is incredible, and only made possible due to the conventional food system. Clearly McDonald’s takes advantage of cheap meat, an industry which exploded in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2006, McDonald’s added nutritional information to packaging to demonstrate the nutritional quality of their food. In the last decade, they have also been adding a variety of healthier options to balance out their menu. It is somewhat ironic that the restaurant was able to grow and expand globally because of cheap meat, but is now so successful it has ample money to invest in sustainable beef.

This is important because as fastfood has always had a reputation of being unhealthy and McDonald’s in particular has been criticized for its practices by an increasingly health-conscious and ethical public.

The documentary “Super Size Me” is just one example of attacks on the corporation for contributing

to America’s obesity rates. Despite this, the fast-tood chain has only been growing; clearly, there are other factors at play. People are still buying the highly processed food. what is it that convinces them to do do? Nonetheless, McDonald’s must respond to demands for better quality food and increased transparency to retain the loyalty of all customers and create a better company image. Different approaches can be taken: improve the food itself, or change people’s opinions about the food. Remodeled restaurants are factors in the equation. Replacing old plastic furniture and red mansard roofs with modernized facades, colorful decor, free wi-fi and TVs, or in extreme cases added solar panels, is a drastic and expensive change that is immediately visible to consumers.

Advertisements and additions to the menu also attempt to present a ‘greener’ McDonald’s, and a corporation that is cognizant of its flaws and working to improve upon them. They want to alter the minds of skeptics and prove them wrong.

bburger ururger urge uurg rgrrge rger ggeeerr planet pllallanet plan pla pplane aannnee

bragging rights The customer experience is at the core of all we do.

35,000

restaurants

1,400

restaurants opened in 2013

1.9 million+ employees

the FRANCHISES

since 1955

119 COUNTRIES 1 billion pounds of beef consumed at U.S. McDonald’s each year

the BURGER

75

hamburgers per second

make mak ke it a COMBO...

COMBO 99¢

#6 WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE BRAND 2013 - FORBES magazine

planet plane lane lanet anet ane nee

DRIVE DRIV DRIVE-THRU DR DRIVERI -THRU THRRUU

cheap, fastt FOOD

glaMOOrous 69

BROCHURE

PLAN

feet

0

5

25

RESTR

ORDER UP! How do we get your fo o d co oked so fast and how do our co oks make it taste so darn go o d? We know you’re lovin’ it.

KITCHEN

DRIVE-THRU Always at your convenience!

Enjoy a hamburger on the go when you’re in a rush wherever you are and receive the consistent service and quality you deserve.

SITE PLAN

feet

0

10

50

MONUMENTAL SIGNAGE Our golden arches are more recognizable than the cross. How many other fast-fo o d chain signs can you identify? We know our signs and buildings won’t b e ignored

ROOMS DINING COZY BOOTHS With mo dern flare, comfy furniture, and ammenities like television and music, stay a while and feel as if you are dining in the security of your own home.

ORDERING COUNTER DRIVE-THRU WINDOW

MENU MANIA The most iconic menu items after 60 years are still the classic hamburger and fries, but there are so many healthy options to cho ose from. What will you order?

ENTRY

BROCHURE COVERS

PETER LUGER

STEAKHOUSE FORMAL RESTAURANT

New York, New York

Peter Luger Steakhouse has been

carcass. The restaurant takes part in some of the butchering as a result. The restaurant building also houses a cellar for dry aging.

In this process, the meat is aged in carefully regulated temperature, humidity, and ventilation conditions. Once steaks are properly aged, they are trimmed and brought up to the kitchen to be broiled to the requested finish of the patron: rare, medium-rare, or well-done.

Plating the perfect steak begins with a trip to the city’s wholesale markets, where meat is inspected and purchased. Identifying superior meat requires exceptional skill and this knowledge has been passed down for generations. The meat selected is only USDA Prime, which constitutes less than 2% of graded beef cattle as the most elite grade.

This rare grade is scrutinized for color, marbling, and texture to provide diners with only the best.

Fatty, tender meat is praised by USDA standards and supports an industrialized food system. Still, people will spend large sums for it.

With meat so impeccably devine, the restaurant practically becomes a destination for steak-lovers. The experience is rooted in taste and pleasure. It is meant to be savored.

Unfortunately, plates are also pretty expensive, so not all people can enjoy it. However, the restaurant does sell their aged steaks online, if you are willing to spend hundreds of dollars on them of course.

around for over 125 years. The rave reviews on steaks and burgers are due to meticulous selection and preparation yielding a level of quality that is simply unmatched.

The meat has a buttery, silky texture and burgers are seasoned and cooked so perfectly there’s no need for any toppings other than cheese and a bun.

The meat is purchased on the

72 glaMOOrous

Ultimately, a lot of work on the part of the restaurant owners, butchers, chefs, and waiters goes into creating an excellent fine dining experience that is not achieved in other sectors of beef production.

bragging rights Among the country’s finest.

USDA

Prime dry aged

2

the STEAK

1887 restaurant opens steaks

LOCATIONS

Brooklyn, New York Great Neck New York

rated TOP STEAKHOUSE in New York for 28 years The New York Times (2011 review) “The restaurant Peter Luger has been around for an astonishing 120 years. It has inspired many imitators, but no other steakhouse serves a porterhouse so breathtaking. The beef has a subtle tang, an intense mineral quality, a crazy richness and a spectrum of textures: crunchy at the edges, and tender at the bone.”

glaMOOrous 73

BROCHURE

SITE PLAN feet

0

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100

KI

dway Broa

Bridg sburg Willi am

Willi am

sburg

e

Bridg

e

A lot scene and i their will b

PETER LUGER STEAKHOUSE

KITCHEN

STELLAR CELLAR The dry-aging pro cess is key to the quality of steak. Having a cellar for aging on-site makes a huge difference and only the top grade is meticulously selected.

BE OUR GUEST This may not b e Beauty and the Beast, but up on entrance an immediate impression sets the tone for exceptional service throughout the dining exp erience.

LOBBY RESTROOM

BAR & LOUNGE

ITCHEN CONCOCTIONS

t of invisible lab or go es on b ehind the es to get meals to at your sp ecific requests in a timely manner so all guests may eat r meals together, although chances are you b e sharing your steaks.

CATEGORIZE THE CUT Can you tell the difference b etween a p orterhouse and and a NY strip steak?

Do es it even really matter?

DINING ROOM

N TENDER TASTEBUDS Steak so tender you can cut it like butter and savor its silky smo oth texture. This is the ultimate exp erience.

PLAN

feet

0

5

25

SPOT the FEEDLOTS how many CAFOs can you find in this landscape?

FACTORY FARM how many differences do you see?

76 glaMOOrous

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agribusiness animal husbandry artiďŹ cial insemination belching biodiversity breeding bull CAFO calf cattle clone concentration cow cow-calf operation cull deforestation distributors eutrophication feedlot food chain food system globalization GMO greenhouse effect heifer herd industrialized agriculture live trade manure meatpacking plant overgrazing producers roughage rumen rumensin slurry specialization stun gun synthetic fertilizer USDA waste lagoons

answer :18

answers

puzzles + games Y

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glaMOOrous 77

EATING TO BE EATEN

SN

534

EA

K

o. o 53

EXTRA READING

PE

EK

!

sneak peek into the diary of Angus Beef

78 glaMOOrous

16

1

4

Wild Willy’s Burgers Worcester, Massachusetts

Blair Brothers Angus Ranch Sturgis, South Dakota (11,500 acres)

523 miles

1,796 miles

2

Poky Feeders Scott City, Kansas 105 miles (74,000 head) National Beef Plant Liberal, Kansas (400 cattle slaughtered/hr)

3 (data from 2007)

CATTLE DENSITY LEVELS (# of cattle per county) meat packing plants

MY

none moderate

LIFE-LONG

(0-1,999)

high

(2,000-7,999)

severe

JOURNEY

(8,000-19,999)

extreme (20,000-500,000)

16 m o n t h s

of 16

I’m No. 534.

image source: http://blairbrosangus.com/?page_id=50

JANUARY 5th I eat, then I eat, then I eat...

lbs

My mother is No. 9,534. She feeds me milk and taught me to nibble on western wheatgrasses and green needlegrasses in the prairie pasture. I’ve never met my father, but he’s a registered Angus named GAR Precision 1680 and genetically superior.

Freedom!

image source:

http://www.columbiam agazine.com/photos/ 30671.jpg

weigh-in

When I grow up I want to earn a USDA grade of prime and become a steak. That’s the greatest success an Angus like me can achieve in life.

OCTOBER 13th es.png eedlot-calv p/articles/f /igrow.org/u e: http:/ image sourc

lbs

Weaning isn’t for whiners, it’s for winners. Sure, I’ll miss my mom now that we are separated, but I’m ready to meet my true weight-gaining potential now that my rumen has developed and I can eat like a champ. Besides, she’ll have another calf in less than a year to cherish (who will also be called No. 534) that will replace me.

weigh-in

Lessons at Feedlot Prep

investment ($98/hundredweight at 610lbs)

images source:

$916.63

JUNE 13th On the Road Again

EXTERNALITIES? image source: http://www.peta2.com/blog/rare-a-look-inside-a-transport-truck/

image source:

http://blairbrosangus .com/?page_id=50

JUNE 13th I’m Flying!

inside rare-a-look.com/blog/ /www.peta2 e: http:/ image sourc

t-truck/ -a-transpor

/blog/rare-a-lookhttp://www.peta2.com image source: ck/ inside-a-transport-tru

weigh-in

air pollution & greenhouse gas emissions $XXXX.XX

lbs

787 lbs of upper choice grade beef

JUST

net return for fed cattle = $36/head

1995-2008:

what happens next?

net return for fed cattle = $14/head

IT ISN’T PRETTY.

gasoline lbs

I went up a ramp into this huge enclosed pen on wheels.

It was kind of like a magic trick; you go in and it’s totally dark except where beams of light comes in through holes, everything’s choatic, other guys are bumping up against you because the floor is shaking and we are all jammed in there, you feel like you’re going to suffocate until finally hours later, the gates open and you step outside into this completely unfamiliar place with no idea how you got there. You’re in the midst of the Bovine Metropolis.

$27.00 1981-1994:

Next, a cylinder rose up right in front of my forehead, a surging gust of wind and

$61.13

(approx. 10mpg for 500mi = 50 gallons)

Certified Angus Beef burger at Wild Willy’s

MORE CHEAP MEAT !

WEIGHT GAIN + GRAIN-FEED CORRELATIONS

OIL

OIL

CORN

2.5-4 LBS GAINED

6 LBS FEED

x

=

$7.95

BIGGER CATTLE IN LESS TIME

15-24 LBS FEED

x

EXPECTED PROFIT

for the cattle owner at the beginning of the chain

And then I was in! But to my disappointment I couldn’t see anything or turn around. Suddenly, I was moving along the floor but my hooves weren’t doing any work- I must have been flying!

living expenses on the ranch (feed, shots, etc.)

BER

M R NU

THE

ANO

EXTERNALITY weigh-in

Driving Down the Interstate

(approx. 10mpg for 500mi = 50 gallons)

After waiting in a holding pen, I followed the others into an alley that was gradually turning until we were walking in a single-file line. I’m excited to see where the path leads us; there must be something incredible behind that blue door.

http://www.provisioneronline.com/ext/resources/2013January/cattle-in-chute-to-slaughter-LARGE.jpg?1358183618

lbs

transportation JANUARY 4th

gasoline

3 SLAUGHTER & MEAT PACKING

lbs

This last month I’ve been a weight-gaining machine! Soon I am on my way to Kansas where I will be chewing and belching with the big guys. I am proud to say that I am graduating as the 7th heaviest steer in my pen and only making progress. In total I’ve eaten 706pounds of corn and 336 pounds of alfalfa, and Rumensin which helped me not feel as sick at first, but then they kept adding it to my food anyways.

EXTERNALITY

lbs

Is this what it feels like to be obese? Thank goodness I don’t have to walk the 100 miles. However, this trip we were all a lot bigger, so we stood fland to flank, stuck in our own urine and dung. Not very pleasant.

$598.00

s.com/?p m/?p page_ a e_iid d=550 d= image source: http://blairbrosangus.com/?page_id=50

Graduation

TOTAL COST

I’ll reach market weight in no time.

Now I enter the next phase of my development and education- backgrounding. This will prepare me for the conditions that lie ahead in the bovine metropolis.

Apparently there’s a lot less space and there isn’t any grass to eat there so I have to start adjusting to a grain-fed diet.

DECEMBER 25th

$257.50 $1.50 growth hormone implant adds 40-50lbs to slaughter weight for a return of ~$25 that could be the difference between profit or loss

imals/ rs.com/caring-for-an http://www.pokyfeede

image source : http://i.usatod ay.net/news/_ photos/2008/ 04/30/beefx.jp g

NOVEMBER 13th

lbs

There is so much food here! The storage tanks with all of the feed ingredients are always filled with new shipments coming in every hour. All I have to do is hang out in my open air pen with the other steers and the food is literally brought right to me and I get to eat nearly 24 pounds of the stuff every day!

I’ve been breed to have the entire package- for excellence in the pasture and in the feedlot, growth, gain, efficiency, and marbling. | agripicture .com

room + board in the bovine metropolis ($1.60/day for 160 days and includes $1.50 for implanting)

When I first arrived I was funneled into a chute by a man with an electric prod; then I was clutched in a restrainer, but being compressed can be quite calming and I was injected with Revlar which will help me gain even more weight.

I don’t have a name. I’m just a number and I always will be.

c Peter Dean

weigh-in

BANK ACCOUNT weigh-in

MARCH 13th

weigh-in

1 COW-CALF OPERATION

2 FEEDLOT

weigh-in

SCRAPBOOK

avg.

1 000 32 OOO

air pollution & greenhouse gas emissions $XXXX.XX EXTERNALITIES?

for more resources & information...

READ ON

glaMOOrous 79

EX TR A R E A DIN G

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

ongoing bibliography of sources AGWeek. “Quad Cows.” Accessed October, 2014. http://www. agweek.com/event/image/id/1540/headline/Quad%20cows/.

Carolan, Michael. The Real Cost of Cheap Food. (New York: Earthscan, 2011).

Business Insider. “15 Facts About McDonald’s That Will Blow Your Mind.” Last modified November 25, 2011. http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-mcdonalds-blow-your-mind-2011-11.

Cactus Feeders. Accessed December, 2014. http://www.cactusfeeders.com/.

Cross, Kim. “The Grass-fed vs. Grain-fed Beef Debate.” Cooking Light. March 29, 2011. http://www.cnn.com/2011/ HEALTH/03/29/grass.grain.beef.cookinglight/.

Environmental News Service. “Cloned Animals to be Tracked for Food Processors.” Accessed October, 2014. http://www.ensnewswire.com/ensdec2007/2007-12-20-091.asp.

Grace Communications Foundation. “Animal Feed.” Accessed September, 2014. http://www.sustainabletable.org/260/animalfeed.

Factory Farm Map. Accessed September, 2014. http://www. factoryfarmmap.org/.

Grace Communications Foundation. “The Meatrix Interactive.”

Accessed September, 2014. http://www.themeatrix.com/interactive.

Factory Farm Map. “Factory Farm Nation.” Accessed September, 2014. http://www.factoryfarmmap.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/FactoryFarmNa tion-web.pdf.

FAO Corporate Document Repository. “Transport of Livestock.”

Accessed November, 2014. http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/ x6909e/x6909e08.htm.

Deseret Ranches. Accessed December, 2014. http://www. deseretranches.com/index.html.

Farm Sanctuary. “Meet the Animals: Cows.” Accessed October, 2014. http://www.farmsanctuary.org/learn/someone-notsomething/110-2/.

Design with Company. “Farmland World.” Accessed September, 2014. http://www.designwith.co/#1584468/Farmland-World.

Edible Geography. “Feedlots.” Last modified August 2, 2013. http://www.ediblegeography.com/feed-lots/.

Galyean, Michael. “The Future of Feedlot Beef Production.”

Department of Animal and Food Sciences, Texas Tech University.

Accessed October, 2014. http://animal.cals.arizona.edu/swnmc/ Proceedings/2010/06_Galyean_2010.pdf.

Dr. Temple Grandin. “Livestock Behavior, Design of Facilities and Human Slaughter.” Accessed November, 2014. http://www. grandin.com/.

Grandin Livestock Handling Systems, Inc. Last modified 2014. http://www.grandinlivestockhandlingsystems.com/index.html.

Gruley, Bryan and Lucia Kassai. “Brazilian Meatpacker JBS Wrangles the U.S. Beef Industry.” Businessweek Magazine. September 19, 2013. Accessed December, 2014. http://www.businessweek. com/articles/2013-09-19/brazilian-meatpacker-jbs-wranglesthe-u-dot-s-dot-beef-industry.

Guptill, Amy and Denise Copelton and Besty Lucal. Food & Society: Principles and Paradoxes. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013).

Gurian-Sherman, Doug. “CAFOs Uncovered: The Untold Costs of Confined Animal Feeding Operations.” Union of Concerned Scientists. April 2008. http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/ files/legacy/assets/documents/food_and_agriculture/cafosuncovered.pdf.

Guthrie, Alice. “Canadian Cow Surpasses World Milk Production Record.” Progressive Dairyman. July 20, 2012. http://www.progressivedairycanada.com/news-topics/industry-news/canadiancow-surpasses-world-milk-production-record. (continue to pg. 82)

80 glaMOOrous

GRAPHS & CHAR TS

INDUSTRY TRENDS TREND 1: BIGGER CATTLE IN LESS TIME (more cheap meat)

WEIGHT GAIN + GRAIN-FEED CORRELATIONS

OIL

OIL

CORN

2.5-4 LBS GAINED

6 LBS FEED

x

DAY

DEPENDENCE

15-24 LBS FEED

POUND GAINED

=

x

DAY (PER STEER)

avg.

1,000-32,OOO STEER

GRAIN-FEED MOUNTAINS cattle are ‘finished’ on feedlot ranging from 4-10months depending on initial weight, desired weight, feed quality, and feedlot conditions (from as early as 6 months old to as late as 22 months old)

40%

1500

1320

1000

450

s-fe

d

heel flank

f bee breeding & artificial insemination antibiotics, rBGH, & feed additives transportation & distribution

850

19944400 1940

206 100 60 3 months

BORN

6 months

9 months

W E A N I N G

(MOTHER’S) MILK & GRASS-FED IN PASTURE GRASS-FED IN PASTURE

F

E

12 months

E

D

15 months

L

‘balanced’ grain + protein diet;

O

‘fresh’

18 months

T

water

21 months

2 years

3 years

4 years

NORMAL LIFE EXPECTANCY

22000110

700 500

gras

short plate

chuck

sirloin

20-25 YEARS

WEIGHT (lbs)

1250

brisket

of total weight becomes beef for retail

rump

short loin

rib

chuck

5 years

MATURE (SLAUGHTER WEIGHT)

STOCKERS & AUCTION

TREND 2: FEWER & LARGER OPERATIONS WITH MORE CATTLE # of Cattle per Operation 140 130 120

VERTICAL + HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION of cow-calf operations, specialized feedlots, and processing facilities

5% >1,000 cattle

110 100

80%

90

<100 cattle

80 70 60

Market % of Fed Cattle

5%

50 40

<1,000 cattle

30

40%

20

>32,000 cattle operations

10

80-90%

5

>1,000 cattle operations 1940

1950

U.S. CATTLE PRODUCTION TOTALS (in millions)

1960

1970

1980

AVERAGE NUMBER OF CATTLE PER OPERATION (actual)

1990

2000

2010

2020

NUMBER OF U.S. BEEF CATTLE OPERATIONS (in millions)

glaMOOrous 81

Ham and DeSutter. Toward Site-Specific Design Standards for Animal Wast Lagoons.” Journal of Environmental Quality. vol. 29, no. 6, Nov-Dec 2000. http://state-cafos.org/docs/HamDeSutter2000.pdf.

Heinrich Boll Foundation and Friends of Earth Europe. Meat Atlas: facts and figures about the animals we eat. (Ahrensfelde, Germany: Moller Druck, 2014).

Hicks, Stewart and Allison Newmeyer. “Middle Ground.” Forward.

Fall 2012. http://www.aia.org/aiaucmp/groups/ek_members/ documents/pdf/aiab096950.pdf.

HLN. “Cattle Transport Comes Under Fire.” Accessed November, 2014. http://www.hlntv.com/video/2012/09/28/cattle-transport-death-compassion-world-farming.

Hoard’s Dairyman. “Holstein has a new milk production recordholder.” Last modified February 16, 2010. http://www.hoards. com/blog_milk-production-leader.

Hollenhorst, John. “LDS Church Ranch Making Big Impact in Florida.” Accessed December, 2014. http://www.ksl. com/?sid=15602133.

How Stuff Works. “Do Cows Pollute as Much as Cars?” Accessed October, 2014. http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/ methane-cow.htm.

Huffington Post. “A Map of Every McDonald’s in the U.S.” Last modified January 9, 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost. com/2011/11/09/map-every-mcdonalds-us_n_1084045.html.

Imhoff, Daniel, editor. CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation): The Tragedy of Inidustrial Animal Factories. (San Rafael, CA: Earth Aware, 2010).

Ishmael, Wes. “Demand Revolves Around Beef Quality, Too.” Beef Magazine. December 6, 2014. Accessed December, 2014. http:// beefmagazine.com/cattle-prices/demand-revolves-around-beefquality-too.

McDonald’s. “Beef Sustainability.” Accessed December, 2014. http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/sustainability/signature_programs/beef-sustainability.html.

McDonald’s. “McDonald’s History.” Accessed December, 2014. http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcdonalds_history_timeline.html.

Mishka Henner. “Feedlots.” Last modified August, 2013. http:// mishkahenner.com/filter/works/Feedlots.

National Association of Local Boards of Health . “Understanding Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and Their Impact on Communities.” Accessed October, 2014. http://www.cdc.gov/ nceh/ehs/docs/understanding_cafos_nalboh.pdf.

National Cattleman’s Beef Association. Beef Industry Statistics.

Accessed October, 2014. http://www.beefusa.org/beefindustrystatistics.aspx.

NRDC. “Pollution from Giant Livestock Farms Threatens Public Health.” Last modified Feb. 21, 2013. http://www.nrdc.org/ water/pollution/nspills.asp.

Nold, Rosie. “How Much Meat Can You Expect From A Grown Steer?” IGrow. Last modified January 2, 2013. http://igrow.org/ livestock/beef/how-much-meat-can-you- expect-from-a-fedsteer/.

O’Brien, Keith. “How McDonald’s Came Back Bigger Than Ever.”

The New York Times. May 4, 2012. Accessed December, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/magazine/how-mcdonalds-came-back-bigger-than-ever.html?pagewanted=all&_ r=2&.

Peter Luger Steakhouse. Accessed December, 2014. http:// peterluger.com/.

Pimentel, David. “U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat, Cornell ecologist advises animal scientists.”

Cornell Chronicle. August 7, 1997. http://www.news.cornell. edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-people-grainlivestock-eat.

The Cattleman. “How Does the Cow’s Digestive System Work?”

Accessed September, 2014. http://www.thecattlemanmagazine. com/archives/2012/november/cows-digestive-system.html.

The Daily Meal. “America’s Best Supermarkets.” Last modified April 29,2014. http://www.thedailymeal.com/americas-bestsupermarkets/42914.

The Daily Meal. “America’s 20 Best Steakhouses Slideshow.”

Accessed November, 2014. http://www.thedailymeal.com/ americas-20-best-steakhouses-slideshow.

The Food Revolution Network. “The Truth About Grass-fed Beef.”

Last modified December 19, 2012. http://foodrevolution.org/ blog/the-truth-about-grassfed-beef/.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “Directions.” Accessed November, 2014. http://www.beefusa.org/CMDocs/BeefUSA/ Producer%20Ed/2013%20Directions%20Stats.pdf.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Residential Onsite Wastewater Treatment: Lagoon Maintenance.” Accessed November, 2014. http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD. jsp?publicationId=195.

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Cattle Production.” Last modified June 27, 2012. http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ ag101/printbeef.html.

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82 glaMOOrous

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. (New York: The Penguin Press, 2006).

Schlosser, Eric. “The Chain Never Stops.” Politics. July/August 2001. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2001/07/dangerous-meatpacking-jobs-eric-schlosser.

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